ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked the lawmakers for their support and reposing confidence in him and criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for not holding transparent elections.
Addressing the National Assembly after securing the trust vote, the prime minister thanked government lawmakers, including allies, for staying by his side through thick and thin, saying that this experience had made them tougher.
The prime minister said he realised that the lawmakers when they lost the Senate election of Hafeez Shaikh but he was delighted to see them today. “I felt very good because I saw a team in you and our team will get stronger. God will test your faith again and again,” the prime minister said.
He said he knew of many individual MNAs who tried hard to attend the vote but could not make it as some were facing health issues. He said the government knew that money was been used in Senate elections for the buying and selling of candidates, and still the ECP said a “great election” was carried out.
“I was more saddened by this, if this election was carried out well then who knows what is a bad election,” said the prime minister. He said that he was “surprised” that the ECP had said it was a free institution when he had not even though he had not mentioned their independence to the nation after the Senate election.
He said it was embarrassing the way elections were held in Pakistan. He named PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, saying they were “thieves” who were blackmailing his government for an NRO.
He said Zardari was commonly referred to in phrases such as “Mr 10 per cent” while Sharif was a fugitive and faked sickness to go abroad and avoid the consequences of his corruption.
He also slammed Yusuf Raza Gilani as one of the most corrupt politicians in the country. He said future generations of the country can only be saved if the menace of corruption is removed. He said the country is on its way to economic recovery and vowed that the government is doing everything to control this inflation and will keep working.
