ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday advised his party workers to hold peaceful demonstrations and avoid confrontation with the people of opposition parties as holding of a peaceful protest is a legal right.
Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of the Rawalpindi Ring Road project, the prime minister said: “I tell everyone that peaceful protest is your right but do not clash.”
Referring to the opposition’s politics, he said it is necessary for the public to differentiate between virtue and evil. “Is it rightful for those who have changed loyalties after accepting the dirty money,” he posed a question.
The prime minister, without disclosing the details, said the estranged lawmakers of his party would soon return to their old fold. “Time has changed, as there is no more room for Changa Manga politics.
On March 27, there will be a massive gathering of people in Islamabad to give a clear message of standing with the virtue by denouncing the vice,” he added.
He said the nation’s anger would keep on brewing with the opposition’s push for its no-confidence motion.
The prime minister said it is necessary for the public to realise what is happening in the country now, adding that the public should realise the politics of ill-gotten wealth.
“There is a market to purchase conscience of people through illegal pelf. The police force was summoned from the Sindh province to guard the Sindh House, where illegal activities are happening,” he added.
The prime minister said huge bags of money have been doled out to purchase the loyalties of people. “The public should witness this kind of politics which has always pushed the country behind in terms of progress and prosperity,” he opined.
These people, he said, have plundered the national wealth and sent it abroad as no one among them ever felt ashamed.
These things do not happen in a democratic system, the prime minister said, adding that in the West, or the United Kingdom, where he had spent most of his life, there is no place for corrupt elements.
The premier’s remarks come two days after several PTI lawmakers were found staying at the Sindh House in Islamabad — which is the domain of the Sindh government — and some of them said while speaking to media persons that they would vote on the no-confidence motion tabled against the prime minister in “accordance with their conscience” and that they had developed differences with PM Imran.
Project to bring vital change:
Congratulating the residents of Rawalpindi on Saturday, the prime minister expressed the confidence that the project would bring vital change in the whole area through vast connectivity, by saving travel time and spurring business activities.
He said Lahore ring road has already brought huge changes and stressed upon undertaking of similar projects for the other cities of Punjab like Faisalabad and Sialkot as hubs of exports.
The prime minister noted that unchecked expansion of mega cities has been creating myriad issues from availability of cultivable land to provision of safe drinking water and proper waste disposal system.
He said that he has directed the chief secretaries to prepare master plans of big cities which would be submitted shortly.
He observed that the unplanned expansion of cities has also shrunk space for the cultivation of crops and green areas, adding that the ring roads around the big cities would act as buffer zones against the growth of settlements.
He said such planning is necessary to save the agricultural lands for the future generations.
