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PTI opposes Asma as caretaker PM

By Our Staff Reporter 2013-01-29
LAHORE, Jan 28: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Monday his party would take to streets if a consensus and independent caretaker setup was not formed.

`We will oppose a deal between the PPP and the PMLN on caretaker prime minister. The PML-N has endorsed the name of rights activist Asma Jehangir for caretaker prime minister. We oppose this as she has association with the PPP. We will block their (PPP-PML-N) move to bring in their interim prime minister,` Khan said at a news conference.

Khan said he even could not think of joining the PMLN`s plan to hold a sit-in outside the parliament.

`How can we support the PML-N? No one can become a bridge between the PTI and the PML-N,` he replied to a question that Jamaat-i-Islami chief Munawwar Hasan was making efforts to bring both parties closer.

The PTI chairman expressed his dissatisfaction over the performance of the Election Commission.

`The PPP and the PML-N are distributing funds among the possible candidates of the general election and theECP is not taking action against them,` he said.

About creation of a new province in Punjab, he said it was an `election stunt` and nothing else.

Flanked by Javed Hashmi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shafgat Mahmood and Jehangir Tareen, Imran Khan said Dr Tahirul Qadri`s demand to do scrutiny of the papers of a candidate for 30 days was just.

He said President Zardari should quit after the installation of the caretaker set-up.

He said Nawaz Sharif`s statement that if President Zardari quit, a new president would be elected from the PPP from these assemblies was wrong.

`If the president quits, new one cannot be elected after dissolution of the assemblies,` he said.

He criticised the Sharifs for deploying 1,260 policemen on their security at their residence in Raiwind.

He expressed surprise over the PPP`s holding of intraparty election in `two days` He admitted friction in the PTI ranks because of the intra-party election.

`We will emerge as a party at the grass root level after the intra-party election,` he added.