Imran urges new Parliament not to take oath

Lahore, Feb 25: Former cricketer and Pakistan Tehirk-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has urged the new parliament not to take oath under the amended Constitution.

Addressing a press conference at the PTI central office here on Sunday after a two-day PTI central executive committee meeting, Imran said that if both the majority parties, PPP and PML-N, took oath on the condition that first deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry should be restored and President Pervez Musharraf should resign, then President Musharraf would step down in 48 hours.

He asked the opposition camp to refrain from forming a government until the resignation of the president.

Imran congratulated both the PML-N and the PPP leadership on the huge victory in the 2008 polls while expressing concern that US was influencing the joint declaration by the PPP and PML-N to restore the judiciary.

He termed a statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan and called upon the PPP and PML-N to shun the American dictation.

He linked the restoration of judiciary to strengthening of the democratic values in the country while saying the PTI would work to convince the democratic forces for restoration of judges.

He warned the new government to be aware of the public backlash if the judiciary issue was put on the backburner while announcing the PTI would team up with the APDM and lawyers' community on March 9 for a long march to Islamabad.

Imran was accompanied by PTI central secretary general Dr. Arif Alvi, central information secretary Omer Sarfaraz Cheema, Punjab chapter president Ahsan Rasheed and Amed Owais, The News said.

ANI