ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday said the situation in the country had deteriorated during the last 60 years due to the rule of two families and the army dictators.

He was speaking at the PTI’s National Council meeting here, wherein he was elected unopposed chairman of the party again, after two other candidates, Omer Sarfraz Cheema and Nek Muhammad, withdrew their candidature, according to a statement issued here. Also, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar were elected vice-chairman and secretary general of the party, respectively.

The PTI chairman said that the purpose of the election was to get people up on merit. However, he regretted that the situation had gone from bad to worse with each passing decade, as half the time in the 60-year history ofPakistan dictators and half the time two families ruled it. "We tried, but the system was not corrected in the true sense,” he added.

The PTI chairman said he was going to give a date for the 'real independence march' in a few days and would soon hold the biggest protest in the history of the country. “The PTI is a party of entire country, it is the only party that can keep the country together. The enemy wants to weaken two forces in the country i.e. PTI and Pakistan Army. The forces against us are very happy today with the coming of Shehbaz Sharif's government,” he alleged.

Imran noted that a man was made the opposition leader who would contest the election on their (rulers) ticket in the upcoming elections. Bringing up and keeping these thieves would destroy the institutions, he said adding that NAB and FIA were destroyed, and a NAB officer Dr. Rizwan died of a heart attack.

Imran said that after that, the rulers also took over the Election Commission which was already with them and that no one had confidence in the Election Commission. He said that today loadshedding was on the rise, farmers were in a bad condition. After 50 years, the PTI government had started 10 new dams. Since the government came, Moody's had given negative economic outlook, he recalled. 

Imran said they had approached the Supreme Court in that regard. As soon as the matter was cleared from there, he would give the march date. However, he asked the audience to prepare in their respective areas. “We are fighting for the freedom of the country and not doing politics,” he claimed.

Imran said, “We have to bring merit by holding party elections; our women have done very well, our women reached D Chowk, endured shelling, had not seen such an attitude of the police in any democracy. Fear was spread by the corrupt people, who were imposed on the country through external conspiracy. But still the people came out in large numbers. I have never seen people come out of their houses themselves like this,” he added.

Imran recalled when petrol price was increased by his government by Rs4 per litre, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman launched marches and no hurdles were created in their way. He said that no restrictions were imposed on the fake news in the media except during the PTI government. Now, he claimed, efforts were being made to shut the media, the kind of action being taken against four anchors had never happened. They were tortured and intimidated, but they were standing firm and they were assets to the nation, he said.