Entire country to be shut down on Dec 16: Imran

If rigging not probed

Mumtaz Alvi
Monday, December 01, 2014
From Print Edition

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ISLAMABAD: Spelling out his Plan C, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday threatened
to bring all of Pakistan to a grinding halt on December 16 if rigging in the 2013 election
was not probed within four to six weeks under the Supreme Court.

Speaking to a charged rally of thousands of his supporters here, Imran said they had spent 109
days at the sit-in and it would continue. I will shut down Lahore on December 4, Faisalabad on
December 8 and Karachi on December 12.

Imran charged that seven million additional ballot papers were printed and bundles of them were
distributed in selective constituencies under a well-thought-out plan.He alleged about 120,000
ballot papers were distributed for Saad Rafique, who as a result returned from that constituency.

He alleged that the 2013 elections were fixed by Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari to loot
Pakistans resources and wealth. He also blamed ex-CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice
(retd) Khalil Ramday and the caretakers for the alleged rigging.

Mian Sahab the ball is now in your court. Take a decision and get the rigging investigated or
you will not be able to bear what I will do after December 16 under Plan D, Imran asserted.He
was flanked by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Tareen, Sh. Rasheed Ahmad, Dr. Arif Alvi
and others.

He was confident that the Plan C would really make it dificult for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
and his government to function.We shall shut down the entire Pakistan if the constituencies are
not opened, he warned.

Imran explained why he came on the roads and staged a sit-in and led a campaign after
exhausting all legal options.A short movie was also shown on big screens at the venue about the
events leading to the Azadi March sit-in and the ongoing struggle.

The PTI chief reiterated that an understanding had been reached with the government during
talks that representatives from the ISI, MI and FIA would also be a part of the poll investigation
process under the Judicial Commission.

He asked journalists, anchorpersons and columnists to tell him what option was left with him to
move against the status quo and get justice with regard to the rigging in last years elections.

It is pertinent to mention here that despite extending invitations, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek,
Majlis Wahdat-e- Muslimeen and Sunni Ittehad, believed by many to be its allies, stayed away
from the PTIs rally.

About the JUI-Fs shutterdown and wheel-jam strike, Imran alleged that the task was given to
Maulana Fazlur Rehman to block the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa roads so that the PTI tigers could
not reach the federal capital for the partys rally.

Imran warned that if the electoral system was not reformed after a fair investigation into the last
elections, the status quo would persist with no possibility of a change.

He charged that when politicians would not come to power on the basis of votes and through
rigging, they would never spend the public money on masses and that was exactly what was
happening in Pakistan. He alleged the rulers were using the media against him from the
taxpayers money and not from their own pockets.

He referred to the poor conditions of hospitals and cited an incident in which a mouse nibbled at
a new-born at the Holy Family Hospital. He also talked about the death of at least eight kids in a
Sargodha hospital allegedly because of unavailability of oxygen. He also made a mention of
death of a woman every 20 minutes due to poor health services at the government hospitals.

Imran noted that instead of spending on health, education and provision of clean drinking water,
motorways, underpasses and metro bus projects were being launched to pocket billions of
rupees.

Referring to the agreements signed with China on energy projects, he alleged that these were
signed by the rulers to receive kickbacks and commission.He claimed that the metro project
launched in Lahore and in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was many times costlier
than those already built in Turkey and India.

Imran claimed that lowest spending was made in Pakistan on health and education compared to
the rest of the countries. He came down hard on Nawaz and Zardari and questioned why they not
be dubbed as dacoits for looting billions of poor Pakistanis of whom 110 million could not afford
two-time meal.

The PTI chief said when the Nawaz-Zardari partnership started in 1988, the US dollar fetched
Rs15 and now it stood at Rs103. He alleged that the main beneficiaries of this massive fall of
rupee were these two, who had their wealth abroad.

Some PTI supporters were seen carrying pink balloons, inscribed with slogans of go Nawaz go.
PTI caps and flags were in high demand. Scores of boys and girls got their faces painted with the
party flags and shouted anti-Nawaz slogans.

Earlier, in his speech, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said now was the time to take decisions, as the
time for delivering speeches was already over and now the masses will take decisions. The
nation is ready for the next phase but Nawaz is not, he claimed.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak challenged Maulana Fazl to block the
roads tomorrow and then see how the PTI workers would open them up and drag him on the
roads.

Today, we exercised decency but not tomorrow, he said and alleged Fazl had tried to stop them
from reaching the rally.I ask the poor people of Pakistan to torch this system, raze their palaces
and come out to lend support to Imran Khan, asserted Awami Muslim League leader Sh
Rasheed.He said if the trial against a former army chief, former prime minister and former CJ
could be held, then why not against Nawaz for what he called theft of the vote of the people.