ISLAMABAD - Announcing his next plan of action in his much-hyped Sunday rally, PTI chief Imran Khan threatened to jam the whole country on December 16 if the government did not meet his demand of launching a probe into alleged rigging in last general elections.
Though his announcement did not offer anything new to his followers, it carries a lot of trouble for the incumbent federal government in the days ahead. But at the same time, a tough question remained unanswered: whether Khan would be able to implement his next mode of protest.
Standing at the specially set up stage at the Parade Avenue, a few hundred yards from the Parliament House in the capital, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) threatened that he would jam the three big cities of the country - Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi - and then launch a countrywide strike.
“I will go to Lahore on December 4 (Thursday) and jam the city, I will go to Faisalabad on December 8 and paralyse it, then I will go to Karachi on December12 and jam it and I will jam the whole country on December 16,” Khan issued threat to the ruling PML-N saying he would do this if it did not get completed investigation into the rigging of 2013 general elections in four to six weeks. “Meanwhile, our sit-in will continue here in Islamabad,” he said.
The PTI chairman asked his supporters whether they were ready to do this task and then answered himself in the same breath that the people of these cities were ready to do this. Khan said, “What I am going to do will make it difficult for the government to run its affairs.”
He claimed this was the Plan C of his protest and if this also failed like that of his plans A and B, he would announce his Plan D after December 16. “If the issue is not resolved, Plan D is coming after December 16, and I want to tell all of you that the rulers would not be able to withstand Plan D,” he said. He also predicted before concluding his speech that 2015 will the year of new Pakistan.
“Now the ball is in your court, decide, resolve the issue, investigate (the last elections) and decide the fate of 2013 general elections in four to six weeks,” he demanded and reiterated his demand that a judicial commission should be formed under the supervision of Supreme Court to investigate rigging. Khan said that the government during the talks had agreed to form the judicial commission and a joint investigation team comprising MI, ISI, IB and FIA officials under the commission.
PTI chief told the participants of the rally he was not doing all this to become PM but to put the electoral system in the right direction. “No PM could gain such respect which you have given to me,” he said. He said that the people would have to take stand today, and if they did not do so, their children would be slaves of the children of today’s rulers.
He gave the impression that he did not care if he was alone in this cause as people say to him that all political parties had left him alone. He alleged that PM Nawaz Sharif had assigned JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman to jam KP on November 30. “And now you would see how PTI would jam the country,” he said.
Khan said that the rulers had left no way for him except the protest. He said that the government was accusing them that sit-ins caused huge damage to the economy but they in fact had done nothing till now but “now what we are going to do, it would make things worse for you”.
“Today we have two ways to follow, one is to sit silently but then your vote has no importance and the educated people would not be able to come in the assemblies… Because they know that when they (rulers) would not come in the assemblies through your vote, they don’t need to spend on you or education and health,” he said.
Khan told his supporters that if they accepted the system then neither would Pakistan change nor would corruption end in the country. Giving reference to Mr Ashok, who contested Senate election, he said that ECP could not count his 61 votes and the decision was pending for the last two and half years.
PTI chairman criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari declaring them ‘thieves’. He said the law did not come into action for those who made properties through money laundering but it used to come into action for the vulnerable people.
Referring to Nawaz Sharif’s last speech in KPK, Khan said,”Mian Sahib, you say that I use harsh language, you both had looted billions and if I will not call you dacoits then what else I should call you!” He said he uses harsh language because he could not see Pakistan going down and alleged that Sharif and Zardari both rigged the elections. He said that all parties were saying that elections were rigged but they did not demand investigations because they did not care for this.
The government is running a media campaign against me. “We will go to the court against this because this is public money which is being spent on these ads.” He said that they had proof of rigging. He alleged that 7 million ballot papers were printed in two days ahead of the elections.
“The rigging was planned,” he said, and added 0.124 million-ballot papers were printed in three days before election in the constituency where Khawaja Saad Rafique won the election. “Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry used Justice (r) Khalilur Rehman Ramday and rigging was done on polling day and then post-election rigging was done by closing all doors of justice,” he alleged.
Earlier at the start of his speech, Khan welcoming the participants and congratulating his supporters for completing109 days of sit-in said Pakistan was awakening and “we all are seeing new Pakistan”. He said that he was forced to use this mode of protest after all doors of justice were closed for him.
“I from the bed of the hospital had demanded for reopening of four constituencies and said that if rigging did not prove in these four constituencies, we will accept the elections and then we went to the then chief justice of Pakistan,” he said. “But later we came to know that all were involved in match fixing.” He said that the government used violent means for the participants of the sit-in especially on the night of August 31 and his supporters were harassed and tortured.
Before his address, senior leaders of PTI including Vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Secretary General Jehangir Tareen, Information Secretary Shireen Mazari, KPK Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and others addressed the rally.