LAHORE: Former premier Imran Khan Monday opened salvo at PML-N leader Ishaq Dar and dubbed him the biggest conman of Pakistan, who he said, had absconded from the country’s courts because he had no answer to the questions of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) about his assets.
Addressing here an event at the Government College University (GCU), Lahore, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman said that Ishaq Dar fled the country on the then prime minister’s plane.
“He fled the country on the pretext of getting treatment. It has now elapsed three and a half years, and we do not know what treatment he is seeking abroad,” Imran Khan deplored.
Imran Khan said that Ishaq Dar was then coming back under a deal. “Here, deals are made with thieves. They are given NRO. Therefore, theft does not end. Therefore, the country does not go forward. Therefore, money laundering does not stop.”
He added: “I want to ask a question from the entire nation. Are you to watch this theatre like sheep and goats, or you will become a man and rise before oppression and injustice.”
He also stated: “The story began with Wikileaks. Then came Dawn leaks, and now have come audio leaks. These audio leaks have made one thing very clear that the current chief election commissioner is the house servant of the Sharif family.”
He claimed: “Nawaz Sharif tells him who should be disqualified. I struggled for three years for introducing electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the country for free and fair elections. But, the chief election commissioner did not allow EVMs at the behest of Nawaz and Asif Zardari. If he has a fraction of shame, he should resign today. And if he does not do so, we will have to make him resign.” He also lambasted Maryam Nawaz for ‘lying blatantly’.
Earlier, while addressing the event, Imran Khan quoted Aristotle and said: “About 2,500 years ago Aristotle said that if there is oppression and injustice in a society, all the sections of society will come forward to counter them except two: the cowards and the selfish.”
He added: “The people of Kufa knew that Imram Hussain (RA) was on the right path, but they did not side with him out of fear of Yazeed. In their cowardice, they let the most tragic incident of the Islamic history take place.”
He also stated: “The selfish people too do not come forward to counter the injustice and the oppression, and this is the biggest problem of Pakistan because the elite class here does want to stand before the injustice and oppression.”
He remarked: “This is how a society becomes a slave. This how a society becomes a slave of oppression and fear. The idol of fear is the greatest. Before this fear when a person bows down, in my eyes he commits a shirk. Because he does not raise his voice before oppression.”
He also pointed out: “This is why Allah has made Jihad for us obligatory. Jihad is to fight against the oppression. Jihad is to fight against the oppression. When you wage Jihad against oppression, you eliminate it.”
He continued: “Now, what happens here in Pakistan. A United States assistant secretary of state, Donald Lu, held a meeting with the ambassador of Pakistan and told him that if Imran Khan is not removed from his post, the consequences will be grave for Pakistan. But, if he is, Pakistan will be forgiven.”
Imran Khan also hurled ‘cherry blossom’ jibe at Shehbaz Sharif while talking about the alleged conspiracy of Donald Lu. He also detailed how the no-confidence motion was passed against him and how his own party members deserted him.
He also mentioned Allama Iqbal and said that his entire philosophy was based on the contempt for slavery and love for freedom. “One becomes a true falcon of Iqbal when one breaks the shackles of slavery. You cannot become a falcon of Iqbal until you do not break the shackles of slavery. Your flight cannot go above others.”
He also mentioned Rumi and said: “Maulana Rumi said when God has given you wings, why do you crawl like ants on the ground?”
He added: “God has given all of us wings. Our flight cannot go higher until we do not get freedom. And freedom what I talk about is mental freedom. The imperial powers make us slaves by controlling our minds. They ask the ‘imported government’ not to buy low-priced oil and gas from Russia.”
While throwing light on the importance of information technology, Imran Khan said: “We were to give the skills of information technology to our youth. But, sadly, we wasted 20 years. In these years, India’s exports in the IT sector rose from $1 billion to $140 billion.”
He added: “The total exports in our tenure were $30 billion, and these were record exports in our tenure. Now compare it with those of India in IT sector only, and just imagine how far we have been left behind in the race of progress.”
He stated: “The steps we had taken for progress of our IT industry caused our IT exports to grow 35 per cent in the second year, 45 per cent in the third year and 75 per cent in the last year.”
He also stated: “We incentivized the IT sector. We initiated special IT zones and granted tax exemptions to them. The information technology is the future. In the IT sector, people as young as 30 years, establish their own companies and become billionaires.
He added: “When we come to the government, we will further incentivize the IT sector. We will reduce taxation to zero for our IT companies. We will reduce capital gains tax to zero for freelancers so that they work.”
