Shehbaz, stop fooling the nation: Imran

MIANWALI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday said that it is high time that Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif should stop fooling the nation. 

"For how long will you continue fooling the nation Shehbaz Sharif," the PTI chairman said, adding that Shehbaz and his brother, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, have only fooled this nation. 

"Nawaz has laundered Rs 300 billion but his family continues to be arrogant, and fails to admit its crimes." 

"One wants to gain sympathy by questioning [the Supreme Court's decision] to disqualify him [from holding public office] while the other brother [Shehbaz] has not done anything to develop Punjab."

The PTI leader, while addressing a rally in Mianwali, said that all of the development in the province is only on paper and in the advertisements printed to promote the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N).

He promised the attendees that if his party comes to power, he would bring 100 million people out of poverty. 

"The crime and terrorism rates have gone down by seventy percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) ever since PTI came to power in the province," claimed Imran. 

"God willing, I will straighten the Punjab police in the same manner that I changed the police system in KP."

The PTI leader also told the rally participants that the only change that the Shehbaz has brought to the police is using the taxpayers' money to change the law enforcement force's uniform.

"Through amendments and reforms, I am going to change the Punjab police force," he said, adding that the KP government has made appointments to the police force through pure merit by utilising the National Testing System (NTS).

Imran said that nothing will stop the nation from progressing if the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) are reformed. 

He lauded the people of Mianwali, particularly the children and youth, for lending support to him when he first visited the city fifteen years ago. 

"I have suffered from disappointment, sometimes due to elections and sometimes due to party-workers and friends, but the people of Mianwali have never failed me," he said. 

"When I started campaigning, my political allies were unwilling to visit Mianwali, but I came here nonetheless and the children and youth, who couldn't even vote back then, trusted me," Imran remarked, promising the citizens that he would introduce reforms to the health, education, and law departments for the betterment of the 'common man.' 

Earlier on Friday, while addressing a public rally in Upper Dir, Imran referred to Nawaz and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as the biggest dacoits in the country. 

Imran had also criticised the 'VIP accountability' given to the members of Sharif family, who have been indicted by accountability court in different corruption references. 

"They [Sharif family] arrive in convoys of 40 to 50 vehicles with official protocol," he claimed in Dir.

Taking a jibe at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, he said, "petty thieves go to jail but the influential ones get a 40-car motorcade."