Prime Minister Imran Khan has rubbished the impression that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was playing a ‘politics of the victor’, saying that all the corruption cases against former President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were made before his government was sworn in.<br /><br />In an interview to the Turkish state broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), he said that it was always tough to remove a status-quo that is deeply embedded and entrenched in a society, but a ‘genuinely popular public movement’ had finally pushed it out.<br /><br />“The previous governments didn’t allow the courts to function, and the state institutions supposed to prosecute the criminals and big politicians were controlled by the same politicians”, he said.<br /><br />“The Pakistani institutions are no longer controlled by such elements and they are free to go after anyone, be it a land-grabber or a politician involved in criminal activities”, he added.<br /><br />“In our entire history, the powerful always got away [with their wrongdoings], and the weak got in jails. But now, the law is taking its course against people making billions [through corruption]”, he said.<br /><br />He said that Pakistan had taken a downward trajectory since 1985 and a country which was once the fastest-growing economies in Asia, had now been taken over by India, Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka.<br /><br />“Corruption not only syphons off money that should be spent on people, but it also destroys institutions”, he said.
