Pakistan polls: PTI chief Imran Khan 'accepts' corruption in own party

Ahead of Pakistan's general election, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former cricketer Imran Khan has accepted corruption in his own party and said that he cannot guarantee the honesty of all members of the party, media reports said.

Speaking to a Pakistani news channel, Imran Khan said, "Many of whom we thought are closeto us were involved in corruption".

"20 out of60 which we lay off, many of them were our old associates," the cricketer-turned-politician added.

"When 4 crore was offered many of our own party got ready to trade their ticket for the amount while those who joined us from the outside remained loyal," Khan noted.

He further said that he gave "700 tickets to party members now if you ask me all of them are loyal then? We cannot take guarantee of all 700 members."

Imran Khan is contesting in next month's general election from Karachi forthe 243-member National Assembly.

He was cleared to contest the elections by the Sindh Elections Appellate Tribunal on Saturday after it had earlier rejected a petition to cancel the former's nomination papers.

Meanwhile, petition to cancel Khan's nomination papers was filed by a candidate from former chief justice Chaudhry Iftikhar's Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party (PJDP), reported Pak media.

It pointed to Khan's alleged failure to disclose the sponsors of his foreign trips and information on who bears the expenditure of his children as well as his failure to mention his alleged daughter in the nomination papers.

The NA-243 seat in Karachi covers the city's Gulshan-i-Iqbal area and parts of Jamshed Quarters.

Khan intends to also file his nomination papers from National Assembly Seat 95 (Mianwali) and National Assembly Seat 53 (Islamabad) and is awaiting clearance for the same from the Punjab and Islamabad election tribunals.

The other seats from which he plans to contest the elections include National Assembly Seat 35 (Bannu) and National Assembly Seat 131 (Lahore).