ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has announced that his ongoing protest sit-in will be staged at D-Chowk, a roundabout just outside Islamabad’s Red Zone where both the protesting parties originally staged their sit-ins.
“Due to lack of space, we will move back to D-Chowk on Saturday (today),” he told his supporters.
Imran Khan vowed to remain persistent with his anti-government protest,stating “three pharaohs Nawaz Sharif, Mir Shakilur Rehman and Iftikhar Chaudhry will fall soon.”
As the negotiating teams of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the government were engaged in talks on Friday to bring the country out of the present political crisis, the party chief Imran Khan came with a different stance that has brought the talks significance to zero level in the eye of a common man.
Imran while standing at his custom-made container before a thin crowd in the late Friday evening said, “nobody should be in a misunderstanding; the negotiating teams might continue with the talks but we will not leave from here until the resignation of the Prime Minister.”
The clear message of Imran is surprising for a common man that what is the use of talks if Imran Khan is not ready to retreat from his first demand of PM’s resignation.
Imran has claimed that they had won this war. “And this war is not at all for Imran Khan but for Pakistan,” he said,adding, “ We have not come here on the dictation of Army but on the insistence of public.”
At the same time,Imran Khan also came down hard at the government and alleged that the Chinese President was not visiting Pakistan to make investment but he was coming here to give loans to the country.
He rejected the government’s claim of an expected investment from China and said that the government has planned to seek a loan of $45 billion during the Chinese President’s visit to Pakistan. “It looks that the Chinese President did not visit Pakistan because he felt that Nawaz Sharif would leave for home now,” he said.
He also said the visit has been cancelled due to the containers placed by the government in various areas to block their marchers from coming to the Constitution Avenue.
While continuing his tirade against different politicians including Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Aftab Khan Sherpao, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others including Nawaz Sharif, who have been speaking against the protesters during the joint sitting of the Parliament, Imran said all have made politics a family enterprise.
He praised his supporters for staying at the protest venue for change even in heavy rains in the capital. He again reiterated his stance that he would stay here till the PM’s resignation.
The PTI chief alleged that the Prime Minister had spent Rs 800 million till now on his foreign trips and questioned how much investment he had brought from foreign countries. “Next time you will not vote in favour of that party whose assets are in foreign countries,” he said. In another development, PTI has decided to meet the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan to convince him for the Chinese President’s visit to Pakistan. In this regard, a PTI delegation headed by its Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will meet the Ambassador on Saturday (today).