Our Correspondent
Gilgit
Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday lashed out at the opposition parties for staging the ‘Azadi March’ in the federal capital in a bid to topple the democratic government and categorically said neither he would resign nor any corrupt person would be given a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
Speaking at a public meeting here, he said the country could not progress until and unless the menace of corruption was rooted out and those, who had looted the country, were taken to task.
He said the nation knew all those people and also the reality of ‘Azadi March. The corruption cases of all the ‘unemployed, political orphans, rightists and leftists’, who had gathered in the federal capital, had surfaced and none of them would be spared, he added.
The prime minister said the opposition parties were too much confused and they had no clear agenda. Bilawal Bhutto was participating in the march as a liberal while Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a strong opponent of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was also attending it.
The prime minister was addressing the 72nd independence day celebrations in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The prime minister targeted Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Pakistan People’s Party and Mehmood Khan Achakzai in his speech.
He said the PML-N and PPP “know nothing” about Azadi March and that JUI-F’s Rehman would offer only one justification that “the march is against the Jews”.
He said “the Jews don’t need to hatch conspiracies in the presence of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “And somebody like Mehmood Khan Achakzai … what is he doing in Azadi March,” he said of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party leader.
Without naming anyone, he said that two sons of a former prime minister were involved in “corruption worth billion of rupees”.
“And when they are questioned about their corruption, they say they are not Pakistani citizens,” said the prime minister. The premier, in an apparent reference to the PML-N leadership and their family, said that “they have failed to show even a single piece of paper to prove their innocence.”
“And the flat which I had bought abroad, the Supreme Court held me accountable for 10 months,” he added. The prime minister said he has waged a struggle for 22 years but his opponents think that he could be pressured into giving an NRO, an acronym for National Reconciliation Ordinance and a term which he often uses to refer to political compromises. “I will send you to jails ,” he warned, accusing his opponents of stealing the money and parking those funds in foreign banks.
Imran Khan paid tribute to the martyrs of Gilgit-Baltistan and said no force can stop the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir from attaining their freedom.
The premier reiterated Pakistan’s support for the people of the occupied region, adding that he is the ambassador and spokesperson for the Kashmiris and will plead their case at every forum. Criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the premier said his counterpart in New Delhi has played his “last card” by revoking special status of occupied Kashmir, adding that once the draconian curfew is lifted, the people would take to streets in protest against the Indian government.
Paying tribute to the struggle of thousands who sacrificed their lives for the country, the premier noted that if Gilgit had not fought the war against the Dogra regime, they too would be suffering Indian oppression today. “I congratulate the people on this Independence Day as they fought a war to win their freedom,” said the premier who earlier visited the graveyard of the martyrs of the war of independence.
The premier also appreciated the beauty of Gilgit, adding “I’ve seen the whole world but the beauty in Gilgit-Baltistan I’ve never seen anywhere”.
