Ali Zafar says Imran to write to IMF to halt aid over rigging

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan will write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), demanding it to stop their support for Pakistan due to “rigged elections,” party leader Ali Zafar announced Thursday.

“Imran Khan will issue a letter to IMF today. The charter of IMF, EU, and other organisations stipulates that they can function or provide loan to a country only if there’s good governance,” Zafar told journalists after meeting Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Zafar claimed that the “most important section” of their charter is that a country should be democratic. “If there’s no democracy, then neither can these institutions function in those countries, nor should they.”

“The basic pillar of a democracy is a free and fair election. However, the entire world saw how the nation’s mandate was stolen. Let’s leave pre-poll rigging aside, in post-poll rigging, victory was snatched from PTI’s winning candidates.”

Senator Zafar said the people’s vote was stolen in the darkness of the night. He said going to the IMF for a bailout package would be detrimental to the country without conducting the audit of the election results.

He also lamented that permission has not been granted to meet Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who is incarcerated at the Bani Gala residence declared as sub-jail.

PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat said the party will approach the Supreme Court, under the jurisdiction of Article 184(3), against the “biggest theft of mandate in Pakistan’s history”.

In a media talk outside Adiala Jail, he said the decision was taken in a meeting with incarcerated party chief Imran Khan. “We request the nation to watch these proceedings meticulously and see what treatment is given to us there.”

He claimed that there was a “lack of justice in courts” these days. “Those who approach courts for justice are either picked up or chased out and then they are made an example for others,” Marwat added.

He further stated that the PTI would file petitions in “large numbers”.

Marwat also warned that his party would emerge as a strong opposition if their “stolen seats” were not returned.

“The PML-N and PPP have announced that they have distributed positions but we want to tell the nation that they if sit in the government with our mandate and if we are forcefully made to sit in the opposition, then they won’t be able to run the country in peace,” he said.

Addressing PML-N’s candidate for premier Shehbaz Sharif, Marwat said the former would find himself in a “queue of lions”.

“And if you impose a certified thief like Zardari on the respectful position of the president, then it will be an insult to Pakistan,” he said, adding that Imran had instructed the nation to stand firm in the fight for justice.

Marwat says PTI to approach IHC against unjust treatment with Imran, Bushra Bibi in detention

Marwat said his party would approach the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the treatment meted out to Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in detention.

He claimed that Imran and Bushra Bibi had not met each other for two weeks, adding that all these tactics were aimed at “mentally torturing” the PTI founder.

Ali Zafar to run for PTI chairman in intra-party polls

Speaking to the media in Rawalpindi, Barrister Gohar Khan said that some of the PTI delegation was not allowed to meet Imran Khan in jail. He said that the nation had seen that Imran’s incarceration was illegal and unconstitutional.

He asserted that the PTI would play its role in Parliament and would work on moving the parliamentary system forward. “This will be the first time that those who do no have the people’s mandate will be sitting [in the assemblies],” he said.

He further said that PTI believed in parliamentary politics, reiterating that the party would play its role in Parliament.

Responding to a question, he said that PTI Senator Ali Zafar would contest the party’s intra-party polls, which are scheduled for March 3, for the chairman slot. He further said that Omar Ayub would contest the polls for the position of the party secretary general.

“This is Khan sahib’s decision,” he said.