LAHORE, (NNI): Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has announced to hold public gatherings from Monday (May 8) till May 14 following the government’s ‘reluctance’ to hold elections on May 14 despite orders from Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The former premier made the announcement while addressing the party workers and supporters, who participated in the Lakshami Chowk Lahore rally held in a show of support and solidarity with the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial.
He said caretaker governments in Punjab and KP had lost their terms and constitutional standings adding that he would demand the courts to hold elections in KP too. “This government has brought sensitive price index to half,” he added.
He said the way Indian FM Subrahmanyam Jaishankar behaved with our FM Bilawal Bhutto [at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation moot] was “shameful for all of us”. “Mr Bhutto, do you even think before spending money on your foreign trips,” he asked.
What did you gain from travelling to India, he questioned Mr Bhutto. He also took aim at Mr Jaishankar saying that he had invited a guest [FM Bilawal Bhutto] to the country and degraded him. “Don’t you have any etiquettes,” he asked. It’s the law of nature, he said, that powerful did not always stay in power.
“We [the PTI] would make the country prosper,” he promised.
But before that, he said, elections should be held adding that people’s representatives should rise through elections. “The country will keep drooping low until these rulers are governing the country,” he added.
He also chastised PM Shehbaz saying “I want to ask PM Shehbaz what he is doing in London at a time when six Pakistan Army soldiers have been martyred and eight people were killed in Parachinar and inflation in the country is rising,” he said. How could you [Mr Sharif] leave the country in such circumstances, he asked.
It was because, he said, his businesses and his family were outside the country.
Mr Khan said he had come outside on streets despite life threats. “An official of a key institution targeted me and he was behind Arshad Sharif’s killing and torture of Azam Swati too,” he added. We were being treated like enemies, he said.
The former PM said he was thankful to all participants and CJP Bandial on how they stood with the constitution. “If a country’s constitution is derailed, it means it loses its freedom,” he added. We were undertaking jihad, he said, for the rule of law.
Taking to Twitter after addressing the rally, he thanked the participants for taking part in the rally “twice in a week”.
Earlier, Mr Khan kickstarted pro-constitution and pro-CJP rally from his residence at Zaman Park.
Starting off his rally with a verse from the Holy Quran that translates as “Help from Allah and a near victory”, he said he had been incepting the rally and wanted to urge people, wherever they were, to come out for their constitution, their CJP and their Supreme Court. “Take out one hour from your life starting at 5.30pm because if the country’s constitution is derailed, the country will have no future,” he added.
“They [the PDM] have derailed the constitution by not complying with the SC’s order,” he said.
Gilgit-Baltistan CM Khalid Khurshid and other PTI leaders including Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, Faisal Javed Khan, Yasmin Rashid, Zubair Niazi and Farrukh Habib accompanied Mr Khan for the rally.
On the other hand, the PTI is also staging rallies in other cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Daska, Hafizabad and Faisalabad. Pictures and videos posted by the PTI Twitter team showed people walking down the road in response to Mr Khan’s call.
PTI secretary general Asad Umar lead a rally in Islamabad. PTI honoring Mr Khan’s call in Daska, Sialkot. PTI also staged a rally in Peshawar.
Earlier, Mr Khan had urged people to come out of their homes today (Saturday) to join rallies being held to show solidarity with the chief justice of Pakistan.
In a Twitter message, the former prime minister wrote: “I am urging people to come out between 5.30 pm & 6.30 pm today to show their solidarity with our Constitution and the CJP”.
He said it was a high time to fight for “our country, to demand our rights, and to stand up for the Constitution”. He asserted that a country where there was no rule of law had no future.
The rallies come amid the ongoing tussle between the judiciary and ruling coalition on holding of snap elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Supreme Court has ordered holding of polls in Punjab on May 14 with repeatedly maintaining that its order will remain unchanged, however, the government is opposing it by not releasing funds and providing security to the Election Commission of Pakistan as it seeks simultaneous polls across the country. NNI
