Before you vote, ask yourself if the party leader is honest, trustworthy: PM Imran Khan in AJK rallies

• PM Imran Khan asks people of AJK to ask themselves while voting whether the party leader they have chosen is honest and trustworthy.
• "Or is he one who lied to the nation, acted well enough to rival Bollywood standards (and fled the country)?" asks premier.
• PM shares vision for a "great" Pakistan, which is respected the world over.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that when one goes to vote in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly polls on July 25, they must ask themselves if the party leader is honest (sadiq) and trustworthy (ameen).

He was addressing a PTI rally in Bhimbar as part of the party's election campaign ahead of the polls, and later, addressed one in Mirpur, where he urged the crowd to also ask themselves the same before voting.

"Ask yourselves while casting the vote: are these leaders honest and trustworthy?"

PM Imran Khan said that even if party leaders are not honest, and the candidates contesting the election are, "they will not be able to do anything (honest)".

"But if your leader is honest and if the candidate is a cheat, he will fear doing anything (dishonest). If the leader is not chasing money, he won't let others chase it either," the premier said.

The prime minister said that if one does research on the poorest countries of the world, they will find that their state is such because there are "Nawaz Sharifs" and "Asif Ali Zardaris" there too.

"Their leaders are stealing the country's wealth and taking it abroad."

"Wherever you find poverty, you will find the rule of force, not law. You will find corrupt leaders, prime ministers, ministers and parliament."

"This is why Hazrat Ali said that a system run by disbelievers may very well run, but a system where this is injustice, will never prevail," the premier said.

PM pays tribute to crowd, urges use of masks

Earlier, at the outset of his speech in Bhimbar, the premier urged the large crowd gathered to wear masks, as the threat of coronavirus is far from over.

"You all are standing very close together. I fear that I will hear later that many coronavirus cases emerged due to this rally," he said.

The premier also lauded the spirit and determination of the crowd gathered, receiving a loud roar in response.

"A large portion of my life was spent playing cricket under the sun. Sitting on the stage here I felt my clothes drenched in sweat. So when I look at all of you packed here together, I wish to pay special tribute to all of your determination," he said.

Vision for Pakistan to be a 'great' nation

PM Imran Khan said he thinks of the future of the people of the country, especially the youth. "I want our country to be such that when one travels with the Pakistani passport they should be admired. The world should look at us with respect. The green passport should be respected. We should become a great nation," he said.

Speaking of the Arabian peninsula at the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he said there were two superpowers then, and the Arabs "had no standing" in society.

"They were bedouins and poor," he said, adding that history bears witness that after Muslims migrated to Madina, one superpower knelt before the Muslims and after 14 years, another followed.

"The Arabs whom no one even looked upon, ended up ruling the world. What was the reason?"

The prime minister said that Muslims have been directed to follow the teachings of the Prophet and they will always achieve greatness if they do this.

"I want our nation to become a great nation. Unfortunately, we went off track. We began asking for aid and entering into other people's wars. We brought destruction upon our own people. We lost our respect.

"No one respects a person who begs for alms and loans. You can test this out yourself," PM Imran Khan said.

He said even if a person asks his parents or siblings for money repeatedly, they begin looking at the person differently.

"No ones respects a country that does not stand on its own two feet," he said.

'Respect for honesty the world over'

The premier went on to say that a person who is truthful and just is respected the world over. He said if there is one leader he respects, it is Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. "Even his opponents viewed him as an honest and just man. They respected him despite being his opponents."

PM Imran Khan said the country needs to change its ways. "We must adopt honesty and trustworthiness. Look at your own area. Look at Bhimbar. Villages and cities all respect the man who is honest and just. This is a person's nature (to be drawn towards such people). This is God-given."

The premier said that when people go to the polls on July 25, they must ask themselves, if the party they are voting for has a leader that is honest and just.

 "Or is he one who lied to the nation, acted well enough to rival Bollywood standards [...] so much so that the women in our cabinet began crying after looking at his face?" the premier asked.

The prime minister was referring to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif who was allowed by the courts to go to London on medical grounds.

"We were afraid. Will he even be able to climb the stairs of the airplane?" remarked the prime minister.

"He left as one Nawaz Sharif and turned into a completely different man in London," he added.

'What are they so afraid of?'

The prime minister asked the youth to also ask themselves this: "When the courts of Pakistan are free, when Imran Khan does not attack the Supreme Court armed with sticks, when Imran Khan does not pick up the phone and tell the judge to give a convict five years instead of three, when Lahore High Court is not controlled by the PTI and is free, then why have they run away abroad? What are so they afraid of?"

He went on to state that the PML-N "crony" Ishaq Dar is sitting abroad — and has been there since even before PTI came into power — and his sons are abroad, Nawaz Sharif's sons have also fled abroad, so have Shahbaz Sharif's son in law and son. "Who are you afraid of? The courts are independent."

The prime minister said that if the courts were not free, if the government controlled the National Accountability Bureau, two PTI ministers would not have been jailed.

'The powerful go to polo matches, the weak are jailed'

The prime minister said that "no one is above the law" and we have the Prophet's example before us as he declared that if he finds that his daughter even commits a crime, she will be punished.

He said that nations that were led to ruin had leaders at the helm of affairs that had one set of laws for the powerful and another for the poor.

"The weaker segments of society are jailed and the powerful get an NRO and go abroad and watch their grandson play polo," he said, in another jibe at Nawaz Sharif who recently went to a polo match played by his grandson and Maryam Nawaz's son, Junaid Safdar.

He said that if one asks anyone in Britain what sort of a person plays polo there, they will be told that "it is a sport of kings".

"You need a lot of money to have a horse and to play polo," he said, adding: "Where do you think the grandson got the money? It is your money!"

The path to greatness

The prime minister said that a nation rises to greatness "when it stays true to the path of honesty and justice, whose morals are based on the truth, which differentiates between right and wrong".

He said such nations, which do not make the distinction between right and wrong, "first die a moral death and then an economic one".

"So we must become a great nation. We are on our way. We have waged a war against oppression. We are fighting a war for the rule of law. The old system that the mafia is clinging on to (will be abolished)."

"If there is one thing your captain knows, it is to compete. InshaAllah with your support, we will defeat these mafias. We will bring the New Pakistan to fruition and become a great nation."

'Never doubted for moment Kashmir will be free'

Speaking of the people of Kashmir, who have withstood brutality at the hands of Indian forces, including the use of pellet guns on their eyes, he said he was afraid that after the August 5 actions, the people's spirits would be dampened.

"But today, I can say with pride, to all the Muslim world, that the bravery with which they have faced the Modi government (they will succeed). I never doubted for a moment that InshaAllah in the days to come, we will see occupied Kashmir freed."

Mirpur rally