Imran Khan warns of ‘plot’ to ban PTI from elections on basis of foreign funding case

Karachi: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged an attempt will be made to keep his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party out of the electoral arena in the country on the pretext of the foreign funding case pending against it.

He made the comments after arriving in Karachi for the first time since his ouster from power and while addressing a mammoth public meeting at Bagh-e-Jinnah ground near the Mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Senior PTI leaders and former federal ministers, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar, among others, also spoke on the occasion.

The former PM expressed his apprehension regarding possible moves to disqualify the PTI as the Islamabad High Court recently ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to adjudicate the foreign funding case against the party within 30 days.

In his speech, Khan demanded that a probe into alleged foreign funding received by the rival Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan People’s Party should simultaneously be conducted as the ECP had completed its investigation into the donations received by the PTI from the sources based outside Pakistan.

He said that no other political party in the history of the country had conducted fundraising from outside the country as was done by the PTI.

Khan, who is also the PTI Chairman, also expressed apprehension that the present rulers would make an attempt to appoint their favourites in the ECP and in key bureaucratic positions to rig the next general elections and to try and attain power through the foul means.

He said the PTI always sought the strengthening of national institutions as empowered institutions give rise to an empowered nation.

The former PM asked countrymen to unanimously demand that fresh general elections should be held instantly in line with the democratic traditions of the country.

He said new general elections should decide the next rulers of the country after the “conspiracy” hatched from outside the country to topple his government.

He urged the Supreme Court to set up a judicial commission to investigate the evidence his party had presented about the foreign-backed conspiracy.

The former PM made it clear that he was not against any foreign power. He said he was not anti-America, anti-Europe, or anti-India and he wanted friendly relations with all these nations without becoming subservient to them.