I wish the enlightened writer had made the effort to go through the PTI website to develop an informed knowledge base before taking the initiative of writing a scathing critique. Had he gone through the vision, manifesto, constitution, lists of spokespersons and some of the articles on the blog, his conclusions would have been different. Opinion writers are not supposed to have a free run with non-verifiable statements and their contents should be double-checked for correctness and accuracy.

Perhaps the PTI is the only centre-of-left political movement of Pakistan with a socio-economic agenda. It believes in all articles of the Lahore Resolution rather than its selective implementation as made by successive governments for political expediency.

It is the only party that has made Jinnah’s August 11 speech to the Constituent Assembly a cornerstone of its political evolution. Hence, its unique policy of syncretism, political pluralism and instrumentalism and belief that all Pakistanis are equal citizen irrespective of their religion. It would be a surprise for many that the PTI is the only party that does not confine non-Muslims to its minority wings. I am a spokesperson of the party on defence matters and this is on the basis of my competence and not religion.

Somehow most critics have chosen to ignore these realities and pick up Imran Khan on being pro-Taliban and pro-Jamaat-e-Islami. The party’s policy on drones is consistent with the UN Charter of the rights of a nation state and application of human rights and equitable justice. The policy seeks to restore the credibility of a long lost national deterrence and dissuasion that can make us proud as a nation. In no way does the PTI support militancy. All it does is attack its root causes militancy.

Some years ago, on a visit to London, Imran Khan was confronted about his spacious property outside Islamabad. How does it behove the former cricket legend to speak of Pakistan's poor, a student demanded to know, when he lives in "a palace"? "Don't you dare call it a palace," Khan snapped back, in mock outrage. "It's paradise."

The prized hacienda is on a hilltop. Manicured lawns sweep around the red clay-roofed, golden ochre-walled home. Inside, rooms are airy and lightly appointed. Vaulted ceilings encase a tasteful mix of stiff wooden chairs and soft white sofas.

The view, at least, is plausibly Elysian. During the day the sun splashes over the Himalayan foothills in the background, and shimmers on the nearby lake. But Khan now covets a different home. Faintly visible in the distance, down in the direction of the capital, lies the Prime Minister's residence.

"We'll win the next election," Khan insists, in characteristically self-assured tones. "There's going to be a very strong movement behind us. I can already sense it." With the prospect of elections as soon as April, he is already busy courting votes. Indeed, his "overthrow the government, save the country" campaign is agitating for a snap poll.

The optimism, he says, is not misplaced. After years in the political wilderness, a flurry of polls say the country's most popular cricketer is now its most popular politician. Last month a Pew survey showed 68 per cent of people view Khan favourably – five points ahead of his closest rival.

In the industrial town of Faisalabad last month, Imran Khan drew a mostly young crowd of some 35,000 people. The voters he's targeting are under 30, in a country where the median age is just 21. And women.

At a recent Islamabad protest, two-toned heels clattered alongside young men's trainers. "The women are watching political talk shows now," says Khan, a regular guest on cable news channels, "they're more popular than soap operas." Columnist Ayesha Tammy Haq calls it the "weak in the knees club". If Imran Khan capitalises on that, she adds, he could get half the vote.

There is a craving for change, Khan says. "Everywhere I went, people stopped me and said, 'Imran sahib, you have to save the country.'"

From the comfort of opposition, Khan rouses his crowds with angry talk of the incumbents' failure. Faced with bleak prospects, some young voters are attracted to promises to revive the economy. And in a fiercely anti-American climate, Imran Khan's nationalist pique soothes widely held feelings of wounded pride.

Yousaf Salahuddin, a childhood friend, says that is Khan's appeal. "It's still like colonial times. Our politicians believe our success lies in bowing to the Americans," he says. "Imran is different. He's not against America or Americans, but he certainly wants his country to have some sense of sovereignty or independence."

Khan also hopes to harden popular perceptions of the political class as inept, distant and venal. "This isn't a democracy, it's a kleptocracy," he alleges, indignantly. President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he alleges, represent the status quo.

"These people are the same. Neither pays tax, their interests are outside, they don't want tax reforms, they don't want justice, they don't want the rule of law."

In the past, Khan's message has failed to secure votes, as traditional parties proved resilient. He recalls his first campaign, in 1997. "It was the charge of the Light Brigade," he says, smiling at his five-month-old party's seatless humiliation.

"Imran was bowled for a duck," critics irresistibly crowed. In 2002, he was the last man at the crease, winning the party's only seat. And at the last election, he never left the pavilion, boycotting the 2008 polls.

Khan likes cricket metaphors. "I always fight till the last ball," says the all-rounder who led Pakistan to its only World Cup in 1992. "When I became captain, I made the team fight. We would come back to win from impossible situations."

He tries to cast his political exertions in a similar light. "Just holding the party together," he says, "was the biggest struggle I went through in my life."

As a captain, he would lie sleepless in bed, reviewing matches for mistakes. As a politician, the only regret he concedes is siding with former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf when he ousted Sharif in a 1999 coup. "I actually believed the man was sincere," he says. Instead of ending corruption, Khan says, grasping politicians were rehabilitated. "Ali Baba was tossed to one side, and the forty thieves were back in."

Critics, however, blame him for much more. In recent years, Khan has opposed the "war on terror". While he insists it has exacted a ruinous toll on the local economy and inflamed militancy, he is accused of being soft on the Taliban. Musharraf once called him "a beardless terrorist". At protests, Khan has joined forces with the extreme right. Another criticism is that Khan is a captain with no team. He is the only figure of national recognition in his party. The others seem to view their leader with unquestioning awe. A weak batting line up will be vulnerable against entrenched local favourites, especially on trickier, rural pitches.

The latest accusation is that the umpire is partial to him. Sharif's party holds that the powerful military establishment is discreetly manipulating events in the cricketer's favour. He bristles at the charge, and recalls how "match-fixing" smoothed Sharif's first ascent to power.

"How do they explain the polls?" he demands. "Is the ISI manipulating Pew and YouGov polls, too? This the first sign of their panic setting in. The establishment may need me, but I don't need the establishment."

The party, he concedes, is popular in the army. "According to their internal poll, we have 80 per cent support," hesays, citing a private source. But the only meeting he says he had with a senior general was over six months ago. "I went to see General Pasha about terrorism only," he says, naming the head of Pakistan's ISI spy agency. "And Pasha agreed with me, that if we disengage from this war on terror, we'll be able to control the terrorism inside Pakistan."

As Prime Minister, how would he deal with an overweening army? For over half Pakistan's history, it has ruled directly. For the rest, it has cut away at civilian power backstage.

"Look at Erdogan and Turkey," Khan says admiringly. "The army was the status quo in Turkey. What happened there was a powerful, democratic government, which has roots in the people, and moral authority, put the army in its place."

Windows 7 is the latest release of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and reached general retail availability on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Punjabi: نصرت فتح علی خان (Shahmukhi)) (October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997) a world-renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam).

Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences. He was popularly known as Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, meaning The King of Kings of Qawwali.

Born in Faisalabad, Nusrat had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He officially became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971, and was signed by Oriental Star Agencies (OSA), Birmingham, U.K., in the early 1980s. In subsequent years, Khan released movie scores and albums for various labels in Pakistan, Europe, Japan and the U.S. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist in the process. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

Addressing a public gathering in Faisalabad after reviewing an Ashiana Housing Society project, Shahbaz said that the man sitting in Islamabad was responsible of corruption in the country.

Shahbaz said that the Army can be called anytime only for doing relief work in floods or other natural disaster and there should not be any other purpose for calling the Army.

He said that the Punjab government would build an Ashiana Housing Society in Faisalabad consisting 2,800 houses.

He said that he was satisfied with the quality and pace of the project.

The chief minister said that there is a dived between privileged and under privileged class in the country, adding that generals, judges and politicians are the ruling elite of the country.

He said that Ashiana Housing Society was the first project in the country that had given the sense of ownership to the deprived class.