Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid also addressed the function, which was attended by a large number of health card recipients, besides the members of national and provincial assemblies. Talking about the state of affairs in the country's justice system, the prime minister cited the example of a Supreme Court verdict that resulted in the release of two brothers, who were given death sentence by a lower court three years ago.
"A poor and common man is jailed for stealing even a chicken, as he cannot afford to hire a lawyer, whereas the rich and affluent are walking free," he remarked. It was due to an inequitable system that the accused affluent were walking free and enjoying the protocol of 40 vehicles, he added.
The prime minister also referred to a Hadith of Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and said the nations with different justice systems for the rich and the poor faced destruction in the pre Madina State era. Sharing his personal experience of spending eight days in a DG Khan Jail, during the Musharraf regime, Imran Khan said he saw that most of the prisoners in that jail were poor, whereas the affluent plunders were sitting in the Parliament.
"Whenever a plunderer is arrested, all of them get united in the parliament claiming that democracy is in danger," he remarked.
The prime minister referred to the justice system in the United Kingdom, which had annual income more than that of annual income of 50 Islamic countries, and said a judge there awarded three years sentence to a public representative only for giving wrong figures of his travel and medical expenditures from public funds.
"But here in our country, a public representative after being arrested or caught on some charges becomes Nelson Mandela", he remarked.
The prime minister said he himself continued to appear before the Supreme Court for a year to defend him and presented the 40 year old records and 60 documents of his property and earnings.
Whereas on the other hand, he said, the Sharif family could not produce any document before the courts in their defence only because the London flats in question were in fact purchased in 1993 as against their claim of purchasing those properties in 2006.