ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: Wishing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a speedy recovery, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Friday demanded that the premier must step down for “hiding” his overseas assets.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that PTI has filed a reference in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for disqualification of the prime minister. “This is a legal position that democracies follow, but there is no hope from ECP that it will give us justice,” he lamented.

The PTI had long been showing no confidence in the performance of ECP. He said his party would approach Supreme Court of Pakistan if the commission did not take action against the prime minister.

“We’ll take opposition political parties along…we’ll go to Supreme Court and eventually we’ll go for street protests, as this will be the last option with us if the concerned institutions such as ECP failed to take action,” he added.

Imran was all praise for British Prime Minister David Cameron who announced to quit in three months after a majority of Britons decided to quit the EU in a landmark referendum. The PTI chairman said that Cameron didn’t have to resign as he was only having the opposite opinion but he still opted to quit.

“This is how true democracies function; in a country like ours, the prime minister is not ready to resign despite serious allegations of hiding assets,” he said.

He accused the ECP of weakening democracy by acting like ‘a silent spectator’. The ECP has failed to do anything against Prime Minister Sharif.

Imran said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) could not be called a democratic party at all, adding, if this had been a democratic party, Maryam Nawaz would not have been issuing orders from the PM’s House “like a princess”.

“Maryam Nawaz has no status or position in government and this was the reason she’d to leave Rs100 billion fund after the court verdict. Similarly, she has no say in a democracy but she is a princess in a monarchy which we’ll not allow,” he added.

He said the opposition parties would unanimously decide and as it seems, the government might not agree with the terms of reference for holding probe into Panama Leaks, adding it is a one-point agenda: accountability should begin from Nawaz Sharif.

Khan defended his government’s decision in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of allocating Rs 300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania – a highly controversial seminary known as a ‘university of jihad’ – and said, Samiul Haq, the cleric who owns the seminary, had helped him in anti-polio drive despite resistance by Taliban.

“It was Samiul Haq who helped in making polio drive successful in some parts of the province where Taliban were killing polio workers,” he maintained.

He categorically stated that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government could not ignore over 2200,000 children, studying in seminaries, adding the allocation to Darul Uloom Haqqania is part of seminary reforms initiatives to stop breeding of terrorists in these kinds of schools.

He came down hard on information minister Pervez Rashid for criticizing his party’s decision and said: “Listen to me carefully! Pervez Rashid should be tried for talking nonsense. It’s part of National Action Plan (NAP) and Jamia Haqqania has agreed for reforms as it trusts PTI government”.

“These people have no idea about Pakistani society. I don’t know who these people are who raise objection and think that 2.2 million children who study in seminaries are all terrorists,” he added.

He also claimed that former military president Gen Pervez Musharraf also gave billions of rupees for seminary reforms, adding it was Darul Uloom Haqqania, which had turned down his offer.

To a question, he said that if the prime minister would have been in Pakistan, he would have definitely gone to inquire after his health. “Pray for his speedy recovery,” he added.