June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament

Chairman PTI, Imran Khan First Speech in the Parliament On 19th June 2013.
(English Translation by Ms. Farina Mughal)

BISMILLA HI REHMANI RAHEEM Mr. Speaker, First of all I would congratulate you on your victory in the elections. I also congratulate Mr. Prime minister. And I request you that owing to my fitness level, I will not be able to attend the rest of the Assembly session. It would take six more weeks before I will be up and about. So after the speech Ill leave as I cannot sit here for a longer period (these days). Mr. Speaker I do not want to speak today as a leader of the opposition party, rather, I want to speak as a Pakistani. When I was growing up in the 60s, Pakistan was considered a great nation. I met with South Korean minister at Davos who told me how they adopted Pakistans economic model. Malaysia too adopted Pakistans economic model. And you will be amazed to know that in 60s Pakistans industrial production was equal to 4 Asian Tigers i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. Pakistan had institutions which were of international standard. Our medical colleges and engineering universities competed with international ones. We were all so proud that PIA was once considered no.2 international airline. There was hope in that Pakistan and our parents used to tell us that you are the first generation to be born in an independent Pakistan. They used to tell us, you have no idea what it is to live a life of slavery and they used to be grateful that they lived in an independent country. A Nobel peace prize winner, Gunnar Myrdal in mid 60s wrote a book on Pakistan titled The Asian Miracle. In that book he predicted that of all the countries in Asia, Pakistan was on the way to become Asias California. Today, we must think as a nation that why we stand where we stand today? What has gone wrong? We must think now that how can we take ourselves back on that track once again. How can we utilize all the potential that is in this country? This is a country that has been blessed by Allah in every sense. If you compare Pakistan with Switzerland you would realize there is nothing great in Switzerland as compared to Pakistan. Pakistani northern areas are double the size of that of Switzerland. Fourteen of the highest peaks of the world are in Pakistan. It has steep gradient from mountains to sea, there are twelve seasons. We have fertile soil. In Pakistan we have copper, coal and gas reserves. We have very large coal reserves and hydro-potential too. So today we are standing here and as it is the budget session we must asses that what has gone wrong in all this. Allah says in Quran a number of nations I destroyed because they did not follow my command. What is that command of Allah. The foundation of first Muslim state that was established in Medina, was laid on equality and justice. The one thing that I can point out here that has led us to all this is injustice.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament Once again I would point out Switzerland and I only bring Switzerland into comparison because they have nothing not even natural resources. That is one of the most prosperous countries. In Switzerland not only Germans live but Swiss, French and Italian also are a part of the country. But never have Germans ever claimed that they want to be a part of Germany nor the French want to be a part of France. Though Germany and France are flourishing but still their natives are not interested in becoming a part of these countries as they keep prospering in Switzerland. (The reason is) there is a system of justice in Switzerland. People want to remain the part of that country because they get justice there. All the problems in Pakistan stem from injustice. Balochistan is being talked about and there are people sitting outside (the parliament, in protest) just because of injustice. East Pakistan separated just because of injustice. The reason was not the failure of TwoNation Theory as is famously circulated but because we did injustice to the people of East Pakistan. Today the biggest problem that you are facing is revenue collection. Today what we see is that Rs.1200 billion is going into the payment of debts in this country. On other hand the total revenue collection is not more than Rs. 2000 billion. If we deduct the defense spending equal to 600 - 700 billion Rs. What is left to run the country? We must ask ourselves that why a country that gives huge amounts of charity fails to pay taxes? The taxes that I have seen that have been imposed are going to wreak havoc. First of all it will result in more poverty as the GST has been further increased. We have seen already that the poor and the middle class are bearing the brunt of poverty. Look at the people on the top. I was listening to Finance Minister Ishaq Dars speech and he was of the opinion that only 3000 people are the affected ones on whom taxes have been increased from 20% to 50%. And who are those people? These professionals are those who are the most sought after in Pakistan and around the world. They can get best opportunities anywhere around the world. I will give you an example of my hospital. It is so difficult for us to retain the professionals, oncologists for example. If an oncologist starts his career in any other country, and I am talking about the least experienced one, he makes about 30 million in the beginning. We already pay him less than (international standards) as we know the rupee is depreciating. A dollar is now equal to Rs. 100 compared to Rs. 60. Then we impose these taxes on the professionals. So already we are facing difficulty in hanging on to them. We should rather study the ways to retain these professionals in the country as these overseas Pakistanis are the most precious asset we have. Your WAPDA, your railways and airlines cannot be fixed by the ministers. But the top professionals who are experts in their fields can fix these corporations. And this present slab structure that has been given in the budget is already burdensome and you will have to increase the salaries for these professionals (to compensate for the tax increase) to retain them but how will the institutions in the country pay those salaries? Lets restart from where we began. This is a country that donates enormous amounts of charity. After the floods ravaged the country, we got no foreign aid and how we survived? The Pakistanis donated money from everywhere, wherever they were in the world. So what is the reason that we have the least tax to GDP ratio? There is injustice behind this too. Hardly one million people in the country pay taxes. There are 3 million people whose details are with NADRA and who lead luxurious lives do not pay taxes. Those are the real estate people.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament What excuse can anyone give for not imposing taxes on the real estate? If you sell any property in Britain apart from your own house you have to pay 35% tax. The people in the real estate are becoming rich because no capital gains tax has been imposed. Today if I want to evade tax I can transfer money abroad, illegally and then get it back in the form of remittances. I can make my illegal money legal by paying mere 2% by sheer injustice. Various tax commissions have reported that unless the imposition of taxes is not unjust and the people are not unwilling to pay taxes, no tax collection can be done. Or else the people will somehow find a way to evade taxes. If we want to eliminate the tax evasion culture in Pakistan, we will have to change ourselves. Our nation will have to take the steps that have never been taken before. In order to create a tax culture in this country, we will have to encourage the people that their taxes are spent on them and not on those who govern and nor on their luxurious lifestyles. I was looking at the budget of Governor House Lahore and I dont know how much is being spent by the federal government. But the provincial government spends Rs. 110 million on the Governor house. In KPK the provincial government spends Rs. 50 million on the Governor House. Then there is another Governor House in Nathia Gali. So how can we justify that a nation that has to pay 1200 billion in debt installments and is paying debts by asking for further loans have the ruling elite with this kind of lifestyle. So why should people pay taxes. The imposition of taxes is already unjust and tax Structure is not right. If you send your money abroad you will not be accountable to anyone. And even those who pay their taxes do not have the satisfaction that their taxes are spent on them. The Prime minister is not here and when he came to meet me in the hospital I said to him that we used bitter words against each other on the campaign trail. But we agreed that now the onus is on PML-N and smaller part of responsibility is even on us as we have a small province. It is on all of us. So I told him that we will develop consensus on the national issues and will go forward together at least on the national issues. But as far as our role as the opposition is concerned, wherever the public money will be misused we will strongly oppose the move. Whenever there would be corruption in the form of imposition of unjust taxes on the public, we will oppose. Whenever the national interest will be compromised we will lodge strong opposition as an opposition party is expected to. On the issue of terrorism, the time has come, that all of us must deal with it as a nation. Not only the parties and government should fight with the scourge of terrorism, the entire nation must unite and fight against this very serious problem. This is the right time to deal with this issue as this is the honeymoon period of present government. Failure to tackle the issue of terrorism will result in stunted economic growth and no investment. When our businessmen have meetings with investors in Dubai they are of the opinion that KPK is in such a dire state that the only business that thrives there is kidnapping of people and getting ransom money through these abductions. Any other business is unthinkable. The conditions there are so bad due to terrorism that you cannot make an investor go there and invest. Polio workers are being killed there. So the number 1 issue in KPK is terrorism. On terrorism I told mian sahib and General Kiyani that all the issues on one side this issue of terrorism needs special attention. From Balochistan to Sindh to sectarian terrorism and above all FATA where 140,000 of our armed forces personal are stuck, there is a need to develop national consensus on how are we going to win this war? We have our own suggestions and ideas.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament We think there is a solution. To find the solution of terrorism we have to look at the motive that why is someone willing to blow himself up? Unless you find the motive or the root cause behind this action you cannot do anything about it and it is spreading like a disease. It is as if we are treating cancer with disprin. Unless we remove cancer from its root this terrorism is going to remain as it is. For the past nine years we have relied on this military solution and the entire country knows where we are today. So my first and foremost request is to tell the nation the truth about this war. The time has come to take this nation into confidence and tell them the truth. Mr. Speaker 3 years ago in an open hearing in the US senate, Senator Carl Levin asked Admiral Mike Mullen why drone are being used on the Pakistani territory when the government of Pakistan condemns these attacks? In that open hearing Admiral replied, and later it was broadcast to the world media that we launch these drone attacks with the consent of the Pakistani government. Senator Carl Levins reply on hearing this is something that is shameful for the entire Pakistani nation. He said why the government of Pakistan is unwilling to tell the people the truth? Today where we stand is due to the fact that this entire war was fought on the basis of lies. In the past we took money to train Jihadees. Then we took 180 degrees turn and started killing the same jihadees that we once trained. At that time Jihad was trendy but then as the United States came to Afghanistan the same Jihad became terrorism. I was in the assembly when lies were told, whoever got killed (in tribal areas) it was said that a foreign militant has been killed. I remember I was sitting here and the MNA from Waziristan was sitting behind me in 2004 and 70 people were killed in a drone strike in Waziristan and a government spokesperson said that all of them were militants. The next day their funerals were on there way when another drone killed 40 more people during the funeral proceedings. The MNA from Waziristan challenged that if it is proved that even one person was a terrorist there I would resign. Following that whoever got killed or captured, it was told that he was a foreign militant and there used to be no investigations. Then when we sent our troops into Waziristan it was to fight the foreign militants once again. When cities and villages were being bombed people were not told the truth that their own people are getting killed. I still remember we were a part of the opposition when there was another attack in Dama Dola on a madrassah and 60 children were killed. Here, the government spokesperson said they were all trained to launch suicide attacks. And they got killed in a drone attack but our government claimed the responsibility that they were the ones who killed them. And as a part of a cover-up they used gunship helicopter to bomb the area once again. After two days a suicide bomber killed 50 Pakistani soldiers in Malakand to avenge that. So the entire war was fought on the basis of lies and the truth is we were getting dollars from the Americans and were fighting their war. People were told this is our war. Today if we want to win this war we will have to make this war our war. And how are we going to do it? Unless we stop the drone attacks it is not possible. We do not want to embarrass the government and all we want to do is to form a unified policy. What would be our response if there is another drone attack? Last time there was a drone attack on the same evening when a resolution against drones was passed. So if the parliament wants to become sovereign and we say that we are sovereign then we must emphasize our sovereignty.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament And these drone attacks what they are doing is they are linking us to Americas war. Drones are killing the same people that are fighting with our forces. And usually drones strike when we are in negotiation with those people. When we had a pact with Naik Muhammad back in 2004, there was a drone attack and he got killed. Then in Bajor, the drone attack on Dama Dola followed a peace agreement. It is being said that Wali ur Rehman who was killed in a recent drone attack was interested in talks. The prime minister said we will negotiate and there was a drone attack. We do not call for the drones to be stopped only because they violate Human rights, the UN charter and are a form of extrajudicial killing and go against the principles that are preached by Americans themselves but because these drones link us to the American war and those people who are fighting against us have declared war on the United States and also on us as they consider us American agents and until the motive of jihad is not taken away from them this war is going to continue. There is no shortage of the people in this country who think they are dying for the sake of Allah. So in order to take away that motive of Jihad from them we will have to disengage from the United States. Yesterday I read in a newspaper that Rs. 100 billion of this nation has been wasted in this war. In another statement that I read the figure was 85 billion. Until when are we going to pursue this tried and failed policy? In the United States a new movement has started against the drones. It is foolish to say that there is no other way except for shooting down a drone or letting it in. There are a number of steps that can be taken. You will ultimately shoot down a drone as a last resort only if you have gone against these drones to the Security Council, then there are these human rights groups in the United States that have stood up against the drone attacks. When President Obama in his speech said we are going to scale down the drones he did it on their pressure and not our pressure. When we marched towards Waziristan a number of human rights organizations joined us. In British Parliament there is an anti drone committee. So the first step that we need to take is, if there is an understanding or an agreement with the US government then public should be made aware of it. The entire nation must stand united as stopping of drone attacks is the first step towards bringing peace to the tribal region. Truth and reconciliation. We must ask the people of tribal region to negotiate with those people. Some might not reconcile in the end but again I would say that these people of the tribal region are more powerful in this regard. When excuse of jihad will no more be there I think the issue must be left for the tribal people to resolve. But we cannot afford to drag it for another 5 years as we have seen happen with the previous government. If this bloodshed continues then you know that in KPK even the MPs and ministers wont be able to work in the fear that they might get killed as happened with the ANP government. We will not be able to work for the kind economic development in the province that we want. In the end Pakistan will suffer. There was Rs. 20 billion investment in the country in 2007 and today the investors are not willing to come. We should call a meeting in which all of us should participate including army and general Kiyani, our prime minister and as KPK is the most affected province its chief minister should become a part of that meeting. We must evolve a policy over the issue and must take the nation into confidence over that.. And then we should stick to it. I can assure you that when we will give the United States a signal that there is a national consensus over a certain policy, it can be dealt with.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament We will not do as the previous government did and was leaked in the wikileaks that they allowed drones and then said we would keep condemning the attacks. We should all be on the same page. And I can assure you that that would be the beginning towards a solution. In Balochistan there are other reasons (behind bloodshed) and hence different solutions. There is exclusive solution for the sectarian violence similarly violence in Karachi has a different kind of solution. But there is a need to formulate a comprehensive policy on terrorism because it is the biggest hurdle in the path of countrys development. Now I want to direct your attention towards the third biggest issue facing Pakistan and that is corruption. Mr. Speaker if we want to eliminate corruption we will have to make NAB an independent institution. Unless NAB is empowered to catch the government ministers, it will remain ineffective because the actual corruption is rampant in the government institutions. All the high profile scams involved the government officials. Taxpayers money is with the government. In Singapore, 3 ministers were caught in Li Kuan Yus anti corruption drive. Had their NAB been under the government control, they would have never caught them. Chinese punished 150 ministers including the chief minister. Unless NAB is de-linked from the government, accountability of the government is not possible. We are planning to form an anti-corruption bureau in KPK that would be equivalent to NAB. That would not report to the Chief Minister. We will form an independent board of the citizens and the bureau will be answerable to that board. That anti corruption cell will be given the powers to point out corruption of even the sitting ministers. Any member of the opposition with sufficient proof against any minister would be able to report that corruption to the anti-Corruption cell. The culture of political victimization will not go away until credibility of NAB is established. I want to talk about conflict of interest law to end corruption in Pakistan that has never been done before. When Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) became a Khalifa, the first thing he did was he closed down his business. There are similar laws in the West. One cannot take advantage of being in power. Unless you separate the government from business you will not be able to fight corruption. There can be no level playing field for genuine businesses if we do not end these practices. Lets say the President of the United States starts a business, ok leave the President of the United States that is a country with huge GDP. Lets talk about the prime minister of Britain. Britains GDP is equal to 50 countries. Who will compete with the British PM if he decides to run a business? He will become a billionaire. It is something important for Pakistan and so we are going to make laws regarding conflict of interest in KPK. No one heading a ministry will be able to run a business. When these contractors become Parliamentarians and ministers, who can compete with them in the businesses? This conflict of interest is the root cause of corruption. I would recommend we must run the affairs of the country as have never been done previously. Conflict of interest and corruption are two of the biggest issues in Pakistan. Assets must be declared. In India the government can confiscate any undeclared asset. Declaration will be a basis for tax collection as well as for fighting the corruption.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament And another issue is governance. Our most precious asset is overseas Pakistanis. The human capital is sitting out of the country and they have the money too. If we want to attract that capital we will have to improve our governance system. We can fix the governance system by depoliticizing it. InshAllah in KPK ministers and government officials will not be able to appoint their SHOs nor will any civil servants or DCOs be appointed by them. We will totally depoliticize the civil services. In order to improve governance we will have to depoliticize the civil services. The thana Kachehri culture cannot be eliminated without these steps. It has never been done before but in order to make the governance system better we will have to devolve power. This power needs to be transferred to the other people. To this day, everyone who has held the power has kept it for himself. The one with power has always kept the authority to make appointments and transfers. In Pakistan, if we are interested in forming a new kind of government then there is a need to depoliticize all the institutions as well as devolve power. There is a need to build government corporations and to run them on commercial basis. Those corporations must be run by professionals as they are the experts and we cannot further bear damages in billions owing to their absence. One thing that I want to bring to your notice here is that the system of governance cannot be fixed in the absence of a local bodies system. In the west there is a local government system under the government which is responsible to provide services to the people. I have once again noticed that MNAs have been allocated funds for development projects. No where in the world are MNAs given development funds but the local government is responsible in this regard. Local government system is inevitable now. If you want to make peoples lives easier then you have to have a local government system. In KPK we want to bring a kind of local bodies system that has never been introduced in the past. We want to devolve power to the level of a township. We are trying our level best to conduct local bodies elections in 90 days. We are trying to use biometric system for holding the elections. The last point that I want to discuss is the elections that were held recently. When Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri held a sit in here in Islamabad, we were under so much pressure to join their protest as we were invited to join them too. Our seniors here know that there was so much pressure on us to become a part of that sit in as they (Tahir-ul-Qadri followers) were also talking about change. We are the proponents of change too and so is the youth, that is considered the core of our party. But we defied the pressure and didnt join him. Only because Tahir-ul-Qadri was of the opinion that change is not possible through the elections. We were of the opinion that elections would in fact bring change. And why we thought so? Because we thought that for the first time there was going to be an election under the independent judiciary. We had complete trust in the Election Commissioner. But I have to say this with great disappointment that after looking at kind of election that was held it seemed Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri was right. Unless we reform the electoral process, the nation will lose all confidence in it. I am not blaming any party here. I am not demanding a re-election in this country nor do I want any impediments in the way of democratic process.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament I demand this for the sake of the future of Pakistani democracy. If we want our countrys democracy to be on the right track we must ensure free and fair elections. An election with results, that are acceptable to all. That is only possible, when umpires in a country are neutral. In India 400 million people caste their ballots but how many times you have heard hue and cry over the election results? Whenever elections are held in Pakistan, as well as the by-elections, all the parties including the coalition partners start claiming the elections have been rigged. But in this particular election there is hardly any party that has not criticized the election results. People from FATA to Balochistans Akhtar Mengal, to Karachi to Sindh to Punjab and KPK, everyone is claiming the elections were rigged. First time people came out to protest the election results but we didnt ask them to come out and protest. However we had to own their protests later on to support them. Mr. Speaker Pakistan has changed. This is an era of social media and the mobile phones. People have the footage with them. There is a website known as dhandli.com, you can watch it for yourself what has happened. I request this house that Pakistan needs to move forward now. We must learn from our mistakes. Only those countries succeed that learn from their mistakes. Why are we not going in the direction of the countries that accept their election results? So I will not point my finger at any political party. But I request the Election Commission of Pakistan and the independent judiciary that they must investigate. Because if they fail to investigate and direct us towards the tribunals and we all know how the tribunals work and take 4,5 years to decide cases, it will not work. We want to request because this is serious as a number of new voters turned out and we are grateful that the democracy flourished. That was huge turnout after 1970. If these people lose confidence in the election process then that would harm our democracy. I call on Election Commission to take notice and I have given a petition in this regard. We have also filed a petition in Supreme Court. We want this issue to be resolved legally and want to know what went wrong. When you asked the voters to record their thumb impressions, what was the use of it if you have failed to use them for voter verification? We couldnt give a more reasonable request than the verification of the thumb impression. We want the right kind of inquiry by an independent committee in four constituencies. We want an audit with the help of thumb impressions. This would help us know what actually happened. When we will do away with the mistakes we made only then we will be able to improve the election. Local bodies elections and by-elections are just around the corner. Holding the elections in this same manner would result in the allegations once again that the elections were rigged. It is so important to depoliticize the election commission. After the passage of 18th amendment people had confidence in the Chief Election Commission but then political appointees were selected. It should be depoliticized. But above all, today, while ending my speech I appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan that Mr. Chief Justice for you I spent time in jail, boycotted the elections in the APDM. Twice we became a part of long march for your reinstatement, held many political gatherings for an independent judiciary. I have never met the Chief Justice except for once when he was on his way to Data Darbar where we greeted each other. I do not even know him. But we had a dream that there would be an independent judiciary (under you) that would dispense justice.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament Mr. Chief Justice you have taken a number of great actions and taken suo-moto notices. You have taken action against many forms of theft. But these allegations on the elections are as if the people of Pakistan have been robbed of the democracy. Stealing of the democracy means the stealing of future of this country. We are all expecting Mr. Chief Justice that you will take a special notice over this. This is the question of our future. The overseas Pakistanis who came to Pakistan to caste their votes, the youth and a large number of women to whom I am grateful, on behalf of all of them I appeal that the entire nation is looking towards you Mr. Chief Justice. No chief Justice in the entire world has been honored the way you have been honored by the Pakistanis. Peoples struggle for you is unprecedented. It is your responsibility to provide us justice and our demand is a reasonable one that an audit should be held on four constituencies. This would improve the process in the future. Lets start it from KPK where we have won. I just want Pakistan not to repeat the past mistakes. A nation cannot progress unless they address the past problems. Whenever anything happens, the countries conduct inquiries. Had Hamud-urRehman report been made public and those responsible been punished, we would not have faced the dictatorships that we faced in the future. Why couldnt we conduct an inquiry into Kargil when India did? If we conduct an inquiry into this war on terror we might spare ourselves from the foolishness that we got into. In the end Mr. Speaker I would like to congratulate for the second time as I have a case against you in the tribunal so I might congratulate you for a third time. I just listened to Chouhdry Nisars speech and I am afraid we might end up being called friendly opposition. Chouhdry sahib you are right when you say that the problems facing Pakistan are historic in nature. Never has any government been in the situation where we stand today. In my entire speech my point was we should have a national consensus on issues. After listening to you I felt relieved as I got a signal we can have a consensus on national issues like terrorism, foreign policy, on how are we going to deal with our neighbors and the United States and on economic policy. Rise of India in 90s became possible only after the political parties had consensus across the board. So whoever goes into the government the laws would remain the same and would not affect business and that brought investment in India as investors think on long term basis. I can assure you that we will cooperate with you on the national issues. I would also like to say that many nations rose even after they were in more dire circumstances than ours. There were no buildings left standing in Germany and Japan after the WWII. In the following 10 years both countries became economic giants. So this is a difficult situation not impossible. We will give you a constructive opposition on national issues. We will point out where national interest will be compromised or public money will be misused. But I am really glad at what you said about terrorism. And later what you said, you demonstrated great sportsman spirit like the one that was demonstrated by the Atchison College cricket team. You spoke of 20 seats instead of four. I spoke about four seats because we do not want to disrupt this process. We want it to go forward but what we want is that both the teams should accept the outcome of the match. You talked about neutral umpires. Pakistan was the first team in history that called neutral umpires for cricket. We were pioneers. I remember that match in India where Pakistan for the first and the only time defeated India on its own territory.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio

June 19, 2013 Chairman PTI Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament As they had their own umpires, I feared for the safety of the umpires in that particular match as I thought they might get killed on the field. That was the level of anger when countries had their own umpires. I want Pakistan to have elections under neutral umpires and I want everyone to accept the results. I dont want this to repeat what we are seeing today that everyone is criticizing the election result. For the sake of Pakistans democracy as well as for all the new voters who turned up on the Election Day. We should not let them lose confidence in the process. That would be a great damage to the democracy of the country. So for the sake of our democratic process, our youth and our future we should conduct an inquiry into it. Not for personal gain. We are demanding this for the democratic process in our country to move forward. We have mentioned Chief Justice as he is the only one from whom we all expect justice. So he has a key role in conducting a transparent inquiry into all this. Only then we will be able to point out and correct whatever mistakes we come across. So in the next election we will be confident about the electoral process and democracy will flourish INSHALLAH and we will be out of this quagmire.

Imran Khan First Speech in Parliament on 19 June 2013

www.insaf.pk/radio English Translation by Ms Farina Mughal (Mughal_farina@hotmail.com)