PM Imran Khan vows strict accountability and No NRO

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan on Friday vowed strict accountability of the corrupt, return of the looted wealth and pledged not to offer any NRO to anyone.

In his first address to the National Assembly after securing the majority vote, Imran Khan said he secured the position after a 22-year long struggle and had not come through any backdoor on the shoulders of any dictator.

“Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah is my ideal, who struggled longer than me, for over 40 years,” Khan said and vowed that he would ensure return of the looted money, hidden in foreign lands, back to Pakistan.

“Those who blew up the debt from Rs 6,000 billion to 28,000 billion would be taken to task,” Imran announced, while the PML-N members continued to raise slogans against the alleged rigging in the 2018 general election.

He vowed to empower the parliament and “create a system wherein we would not have to beg anyone for loans, rather we will generate our own resources and stand on our own feet.”

Imran Khan assured the nation that he would take to task all the looters who plundered the national wealth and the moneys to be used for social justice, higher education, health and building up a knowledge economy.

Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan said his government would empower the parliament and he himself would answer the questions of the Members of National Assembly in the house twice a month.

Imran Khan credited his election victory to the country’s youth and said he would strive for their better future in a way that the youth got jobs in the country and did not have to go abroad for earning their livelihoods.

About the alleged rigging in general election and hue and cry by PML-N members in the House, the PM-elect questioned the agitators why they did not pay heed to his demand for opening four constituencies after the 2013 general election and he had to approach the courts.

“Had they opened the four constituencies at that time (for probe), today the political parties would have had full trust in the general election 2018,” he said and reminded that the PTI had to stage a 126 days sit-in, which led to the formation of a judicial commission to probe rigging in the 2013 election.

Imran Khan said when he was doing all this to get the rigging probe, he was accused of acting on the behest of establishment.

The PM-elect said he was a cricketer and was a man who brought neutral umpires in the game of cricket.

He assured the House that his government would introduce such a transparent election process which would be acceptable to all the political parties.

Imran Khan offered all out cooperation to the opposition parties for any kind of probe in the alleged rigging, adding, since he did not indulge in any rigging, the opposition parties could go to the courts, or the election commission and his government would cooperate with them.

The Prime Minister-elect, however, maintained that he could not be blackmailed in any way. “No one could either blackmail me or can do so,” he stressed.

Imran Khan said those intending to agitate were free to take to the streets and stage a sit-in. “We will provide them with a (shipping) container as well as food,” he remarked.

Imran Khan thanked Allah Almighty as well as the nation for giving him this position and bringing the change for which the people were waiting for. “I pledge to bring the change for which the people were aspiring for the last 70 years,” he added.

– APP