PTI will sue UK newspaper over alleged story against Imran Khan

President Zardari will be responsible if memo scandal proved true: Imran Khan
---- PTI will sue UK newspaper over alleged story against Imran Khan

By Saleem Mehsud

LAHORE, Nov 23: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday demanded judicial inquiry of the memo scandal, saying that President Asif Ali Zardari would be responsible if the scam proved genuine.

Imran Khan was talking to the media at Lahore airport on his arrival from UK.

When asked about the story of Sunday Times regarding his meeting with US Ambassador Cameron Munter along with ISI Chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha, he said that he will go to court against the UK newspaper that published a baseless story about his secret meeting. Not like the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that has not reacted to the story of Financial Times, Imran Khan said that PTI would sue the UK newspaper in court if they did not retract.

“We have written a letter to The Sunday Times. We have clearly told them if they do not retract their report we will take action against them,” he warned.

Imran confirmed that he met with US Ambassador Cameron Munter at his own residence at least six months ago when the US ambassador was holding meeting with various politicians and also met with the ISI chief one and a half years ago and the agenda of that meeting was US drone strikes in the tribal region but did not meet him later on.

“Every matter is very clear from the Wikileaks which said that Pakistani politicians say something in their meetings with the US politicians and diplomats and made public other statements but one politician of Pakistan said the same during his meeting with the US politicians and to the Pakistani public,” the PTI chairman said.

When quizzed that politicians were blaming PTI of getting support from the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan, Imran Khan said that both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif did nothing for the masses instead of giving them the gift of price hike, loadshedding of gas and electricity, unemployment and numerous other problems which has left the country at the verge of bankruptcy so the masses by themselves were demanding change and joining PTI, the only political party which is against the prevailing corrupt system.

Commenting about the PML-N, the PTI chairman said that the party is the product of secret agencies and that PML-N and PPP are afraid of PTI tsunami. He said that both PPP and PML-N were destroying the country because leaders of both the political parties were involved in money laundering and both have assets in foreign countries.

Reacting to the PML-N rally in Faisalabad, Imran said that PML-N should wait for PTI rally on December 25 in Karachi in which they will see real enthusiasm and real supporters, adding that MPAs of PML-N were boarding supporters from various areas in buses to made PML-N rally successful and spend huge amount from the national exchequer. The PTI chief said that the N-League in order to avoid scrupulous spending of bringing people from other areas to the Gujranwala rally, abandoned the rally on the pretext of security reasons.

Replying to a question regarding talks with the Taliban, Imran said that dialogue was the only solution of terrorism and not military operation. He said that military was conducting operations against the militants in the tribal areas for the last seven years and similarly Nato and US were fighting insurgency in Afghanistan since 10 years but fruitful results were not achieved.

“First when I spoke about holding talks with the Taliban which is the only solution to the war on terror then I was blamed for the move but know world has acknowledged that only talks with the Taliban can bring peace in the region,” Imran Khan said, adding, “we have destroyed our country by indulging our forces in the war on terror.”

Reacting to the decision by Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani to resign from his office after meeting with top executives of the state, the PTI chief termed Haqqani’s decision as right and demanded to inquire the scam by judicial commission because people did not trust parliamentary commission.