Referendum is Pak’s last hope for democracy: Imran

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">new delhi: even as the two main political parties— the pakistan muslim league and the pakistan people’s party — have opposed musharraf’s referendum, tehrik insaf leader and former cricket captain imran khan has come out strongly in favour of the april 30 vote. speaking to <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">the sunday times </span>from lahore, the former cricket icon said: ‘‘forget about legalities, the referendum is the only hope for pakistan.’’ ‘‘for 11 long years,’’ he said, ‘‘pakistan had been run by crooks — nawaz sharif and benazir bhutto.and the result? pakistan was declared as the second most corrupt country in the world. the country’s image took a beating. development came to a standstill.’’ calling the referendum a verdict on democracy vs nawaz sharif and benazir bhutto, imran said the two former prime ministers were rejected for corruption. but they managed to stage a comeback because the system had no safeguards to check the entry of crooks into politics. the prevailing judicial system cannot not control the corrupt. ‘‘since in this election crooks are not being allowed to participate, it is good for democracy in pakistan. nawaz and bibi (benazir) have plundered this country’s wealth and stashed it away in foreign banks. in case of party-based elections, these crooks would have put this illegal money into politics and won the elections.’’ defending gen musharraf, he said: ‘‘whatever one may say about him, no one calls him a crook. pakistan needs a person with a squeaky clean image at the helm. if in this democracy, moneyed crooks rule the roost, i have no use for it. my concern is the welfare of the people of pakistan.’’ he said the referendum would usher in true democracy in the country. ‘‘since no one calls musharraf a crook, he can afford to put in place independent institutions like the election commission which, in turn, puts corrupt politicians out of business.’’ finding fault with the current judicial system which failed to bring the corrupt politicians to book, he said, ‘‘this is the story which is being repeated all over the third world. in india, the ghost of the bofors scandal is yet to be put to rest. in pakistan, the corrupt leaders have still not been punished.’’ the referendum, he said, was step in the right direction. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">related story:</span><br /><img src="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//7501267-open//images//ticker.gif" alt="C://DOCUME~1//ADMINI~1//LOCALS~1//Temp//cms_files//7501267-open//images//ticker.gif" border="0" /> <a href="articleshow.asp?art_id=7285110">jamaat-i-islami opposes musharraf''s referendum</a> </div> </div>