Special Assistant to Prime Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was master of U-turns, and he had always preferred his personal interests over the country’s interests.
Addressing a press conference at Model Town, along with other party leaders here, he claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and its allies would win the bye-elections, held in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday.
The SAPM said that even if PTI chairman would win the bye-elections, re-election would have to be held on these seats as his resignation from Mianwali National Assembly seat was not accepted yet. He said whoever would vote for him in bye-elections would, in fact, waste his vote. He said that contesting each seat by himself was the failed strategy of Imran Khan, that was why turnout remained very low in urban centers.
He said that PTI chairman’s every political move reflected contradictions. His tactics to trap his opponents had been exposed before the nation through audio leaks and other scandals, Atta Tarar said.
He asserted that the coalition government, led by the PML-N, was making sincere efforts to save the country through tough decisions. “We have saved the country instead of our politics,” he added.
Tarar said that candidates of PML-N and its allies were satisfied and confident about their victory, adding that the PTI always speaks against hereditary politics. But in the bye-elections in Multan, none else but Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s daughter was contesting the polls. He said that Qureshi, who was former MNA from Multan, his son MPA and now his daughter was contesting for the MNA seat, which was evidence of hereditary politics in the PTI ranks.
He rejected the allegations of PTI leader Farrukh Habib of voter list mismanagement from election commission deliberately, adding that the Election Commissioner of Pakistan had made it clear that not a single case of rigging or any attempt had yet been reported.
He challenged the PTI chairman to dissolve the Punjab and KP assemblies and his party [PML-N] would announce the date for general election as per Imran’s wish.
To a question, he said that the Punjab government had completely failed to address the issues of masses. He regretted that the land-grabbers, in connivance with the Punjab police, demolished a building under the garb of anti-encroachment campaign in Lahore last week. He said that four directors general of Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment had been replaced and now a 5th one had been appointed.
To another query, he said that the Establishment Division had a clear policy on transfers and postings, under which officer concerned have to report in the division within a given time period.
He said that wheat import was a prerogative of the federal government and the provincial governments have no powers in that regard; however, they have to procure local wheat to meet their targets.
