Former Pakistani cricket stars have come out in support of cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan as the country prepares to go to the polls on Wednesday. “It was in your leadership skip @ImrankhanPTI that we became world champions in 1992. It is in your leadership that we can again become a great democratic country,” tweeted Wasim Akram.
‘Honest leader’
“You have got what it takes Skipper @ImranKhanPTI but it will take everything you have... No one can doubt your Honesty and that’s what is require in our country... An honest LEADER,” tweeted former captain Waqar Younis.
#BehindYouSkipper became one of the country’s top trending hashtags as celebrities and former cricketers came to Mr. Khan’s support. Former Australian star Dean Jones also lent his support. “I am not a political person... but @ImranKhanPTI I would have loved to play under.... great leader and would do well for Pakistan if given the opportunity,” he tweeted.
Mr. Khan’s chances of becoming Prime Minister are believed to be his best since entering politics two decades ago. But critics allege the electoral playing field is being fixed for him by the military.
Meanwhile, Hanif Abbasi, a candidate for the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was jailed for life by an anti-narcotics court. Abbasi was sentenced in a rare late-night session Saturday. The six-year-old case was related to the supply of ephedrine to a drug smuggler.
Earlier on Saturday, an Islamabad High Court judge, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, publicly accused the ISI of manipulating judicial decisions. “ISI is fully involved in manipulating judicial process. ISI people get their choice of benches formed in the courts, cases are marked,” he told lawyers in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
PTI candidate killed
Also, Ikramullah Gandapur, a candidate from Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and his driver, were killed by a suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan on Sunday. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent to the media.
A suicide blast in Balochistan on July 13 had killed 149 people — one of Pakistan’s worst-ever terror attacks.
