[YabbaIn]

HYDERABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has said that the next general elections would be held in winter, claiming his party will sweep the polls. “I can’t give a date though, but the winter is going to be the time for elections,” he asserted while talking to the media at the residence of Dr Zulfiqar Laghari in Mirpurkhas on Saturday.

The incumbent government’s term in office will end in March, 2013, after which the polls will be announced. However, Khan’s prediction forecasts an early ouster of the government. The PTI chief also claimed that after winning the polls he will wipe out corruption within 90 days.
Reiterating his criticism over the election of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as the new prime minister, he said President Asif Zardari wanted a “servant” for himself and not a PM for the people. He alleged that President Zardari and the allied political parties are amassing wealth from corruption to “buy” the elections. “Free and fair elections are not possible under Zardari,” Khan said.
The PTI chief began his visit of southern Sindh, accompanied by the party’s provincial president Nadir Akmal Laghari, on the heels of his debut public meeting in Hyderabad.
He earlier visited Tando Muhammad Khan, where he addressed a small crowd in the village of Abdul Hadi Nizamani.
He visited the village on the invitation of the PTI’s district president Iqbal Nizamani, who hosted him at the residence of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh Council member Abdul Hadi Nizamani, his uncle. Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) leaders Tariq Nizamani and Altaf Nizamani also reportedly attended the gathering.
While talking to the media, the PTI chief said he will not let Sindh, still unconquered territory for his party, remain an exclusive turf for the ruling PPP.
“The people of Sindh are poor but the elected representatives are rich. Therefore, the PTI has come here (to the province) with a new thought … to strengthen ties with the people.”
Without specifically mentioning which interests of the province the PTI intends to uphold, Imran said he will protect the rights of Sindh’s people.
Although he has come clear over the issue of Sindh’s division and for uprooting feudalism, the water sharing, missing persons, illegal immigration, province’s control over its natural resources and acceptance of Sindhi as a national language are yet to draw his attention.
Published In The Express Tribune, June 24th, 2012.