HAVELIAN: Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday reiterated that the government would not withdraw corruption cases against the opposition leaders and challenged them to do whatever they could do.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of 39.3 kilometer Havelian-Mansehra section of the118-km-long Havelian-Thakot motorway project, the prime minister said the hue and cry by the opposition parties would end as soon as he gave an NRO to them just like former President Pervez Musharraf.
Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, Minister for Communications Murad Saeed, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan also attended the ceremony besides the senior officers of the government and Chinese companies.
The four-lane controlled access motorway is part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and will serve as main route for the commercial traffic between two countries, besides reducing the travel time by up to 2.5 hours between Islamabad and Mansehra.
Referring to the recent sit-in by the Jamiat UIema-e-Isalm-Fazl, what he dubbed as “Circus on Container” also joined by other opposition parties, the prime minister said their only agenda was to pressure the government to withdraw corruption cases.
Even, he said in the negotiations held during the protest, the opposition parties had also put forward a minus-one formula as their only objection was on Imran Khan.
The prime minister said he realized that the people were facing inflation and difficult time but it was all due to the same political parties who had quadrupled the debt burden on the country.
He said he had already challenged the opposition leaders to spend just a month on the container and get all of their demands fulfilled by the government.
“We spent 126 days on a container. A few of my cabinet members were worried but I told them not to worry as I know what is container and Dharna.
You can spend 126 days only if your efforts are based on an ideology,” he remarked.
He said that he had been trained to face the challenges and ups and downs and also to rise after fall.
He said the PTI-led government was the first one to take the responsibility of the seminaries’ students but JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman misguided them and tried to exploit them by using the religion card.
“But the way these kids have been exploited in this Dharna is deplorable.
When you go and ask Dharna participants, they say Islam is in danger, Imran Khan is here to hoist the Israeli flag and we are here to save Islam. Some other talked of Khatm-e-Nabuwat or any likely dominance of Qadianis,” the prime minister said.
He said the students of the seminaries were compelled to brave the harsh weather conditions while their leadership was enjoying at their luxury houses.
The prime minister said how a person, who could change his loyalties just for sake of a the chairmanship of Kashmir Committee or a diesel permit, could lecture on religion.
Commenting on the participation of Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the sit-in, he said he had foretold that they (opposition) would gather for having the common interests. But, their interests were totally different to those of the people of Pakistan, the prime minister commented.
