LAHORE - The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan Thursday announced that he would soon be giving a call to his supporters to come to Islamabad to build pressure for holding immediate elections in the country.
“You keep your full preparations as I will call you to come to Islamabad soon,” he told a charged crowd at the historic Minar-e-Pakistan ground on Thursday night.
He said he had asked the party leaders to spread in every nook and corner of the country and prepare the people for a movement to get rid of the slavery [of foreign powers].
He stressed this movement will not end, adding it will rather get impetus with each passing day. “Unless and until elections are held, we will continue the movement,” he said, adding that the nation should prepare and wait for his call to reach Islamabad.
In his hour-long speech, Khan also heaped praises on the Pakistan army and the police. “It is our army and our police. We want to make the police a strong force. If we did not have a powerful army, Pakistan would have been divided into three parts by now. Enemy never succeeded in its designs since people are standing with the army. We don’t want to damage the country. But we will not accept this imported government,” he averred.
He said he did not want any confrontation with anybody. “I don’t want any confrontation but elections,” was his message for the powers that be from Lahore.
Without naming any institution but in an obvious reference to the country’s powerful establishment, Imran Khan said: “Whosoever has committed the mistake [of regime change] can rectify it by holding an immediate election. I want immediate elections. We are a democratic party, and we want democracy but will not accept this imported government.”
Khan said it was his country, and he did not want to inflict any damage to it. “I will live and die here unlike my opponents who rush to the UK whenever they are in trouble, even of a minor nature. It is as if the British Queen was their relative,” he observed.
He said his party will neither accept this slavery nor this imported government. Calling the new government a selected one, he said that the selected government was afraid of elections. “This government has been imposed on us from abroad. We will never accept it. We will never accept these slaves and corrupt rulers.”
In reiteration of his earlier stance on change of regime in Pakistan, he said his government was changed under a conspiracy because it was pursuing an independent foreign policy and raised the issue of Islamophobia at all international forums. “But those who would dictate their terms on just one phone call did not like this,” he added.
He went on to say: “We were asked why you visit Russia? I went there to sign an agreement to get cheaper gas and oil from Russia which had offered oil and gas at 30 per cent less than the market price.”
For the second time, Khan also praised India for its independent foreign policy. He said that despite being a strategic ally of the USA, India was importing oil from Russia. “Indian foreign policy is for their people’s interest and our foreign policy is for other people’s interest,” he said, adding that his government’s policy towards China was also not liked by the western powers.
Responding to ‘Tosha Khanna’ allegations, he said he received gifts from Tosha Khanna paying 50 per cent of the actual price unlike past rulers who would get the same by paying only 15 per cent of the actual price. “I built roads from the money I got after selling the foreign gifts,” he claimed.
Khan accused the chief election commissioner (CEC) of being biased against the PTI. “The PML-N should give an office to CEC in the party,” he said.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi also addressed the rally.
