960425

Imran's 'Insaf

Tehreek' to work

for basic rights,

avert economic

disaster

SHAHID MALIK

LAHORE: Imran Khan has called upon fellow Pakistanis to join his movement for justice to win their basic rights and ward off the evil implications of the current economic decline, as a result of which the country is likely to go bankrupt when the entire revenue of the nation will be spent on debt servicing.

Launching what he has named as 'Tehreek-e-Insaaf' here on Thursday, he once again referred to the political practices, whereby the elected representatives spent huge amounts of money to get into the Parliament and then resorted to looting the country. "This has earned us the derisive status of one of the most corrupt nations in the world," he said.

In an obvious reference to bank loans obtained by political pressure, Imran Khan said that in 1988, bad debts of the nationalised banks amounted to Rs 13 billion, but in 1996, these debts had crossed the "shocking statistic" of Rs 100 billion.

Criticising the abnormally high administrative expenses, Imran said that majority of Pakistanis were suffering under the burden of rising prices while the rulers were living a life of total luxury. Quoting from a foreign magazine, he claimed that the annual cost to the tax-payers of maintaining the Prime Minister and the President's houses was around Rs 1.7 billion, which was in addition to the cost of the Governor houses, Chief Minister houses, plus their fleet of luxury cars and private jets. This created an impression as if we had struck oil in Pakistan, he said.

Imran proposed that the "palaces should be put to public use and not be a burden on the tax-payers" The public must have access to information about the government and its officials so that there could be accountability, he pleaded.

Stressing the need to put an end to the so-called VIP culture, Imran Khan said, "Vast amounts of our tax payers' money are spent on a small group of privileged establishment to provide medical treatment abroad."

Unless they were forced to stand in a queue like everyone else at the government hospitals and for railway tickets, they would never understand what the citizens had to face, he added.

It is estimated that around 25 to 30 per cent of the workforce is either unemployed or under-employed, he claimed.

Replying to a question about the instruments to be employed to bring about the change in the society, he said that he would neither join any of the existing political parties nor was he giving a serious thought to contesting the next parliamentary elections. But his movement would wage a struggle within the framework of the Constitution and in line with the democratic process, he pledged.

Imran Khan also announced the formation of committees on the following subjects in order to launch a national debate. "On how we can best bring change and improvement in the current terrible state of affairs":

Justice and legal affairs, human rights, governance, health and education, the economy, youth and joblessness, women's affairs and the environment.

Agencies add: Announcing the launching of his movement at a largely attended news conference here at a local hotel, he said the movement was not a political party but was a first step which he was going to take and if masses supported him he would transform it into a political force.

In the field of health, he said Pakistan had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and 60 percent of our population did not have access to clean drinking water.

He recalled that during the fund-raising campaign for the cancer hospital, he came across Pakistanis here and abroad, who excelled in almost every field. Pakistanis are amongst the top academic ethnic groups in America and Britain. In the US, Pakistani doctors had performed brilliantly, and they had helped our cancer hospital achieve excellence. Pakistani engineers in the Silicon valley, California, had made a name for themselves in the computer industry.

"I have heard endless stories of patriotic overseas Pakistanis returning to their motherland filled with idealism to set up some business, only to be defeated by a thoroughly corrupt and unjust system within the country. While the "chamchas" and "sifarishis" occupy the best positions, the qualified and the honest are discriminated against", Khan regretted.

"At the moment, despite our Prime Minister's foreign tours, there is hardly any inflow of foreign investment", the cricket legend added.

The education system in the country, he said, created divisions within the country by producing aliens in our society on the one hand and radicals on the other. Rather than having three parallel systems, we should have one syllabus for the entire nation which needs to be worked out by our best brains, a syllabus that gives our youth pride in our history and culture and raises their self-esteem. At higher education level we need to focus on excellence in technical education."