GUJRANWALA - Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali against making any attempt to block his protest rally on November 30.
Addressing a gathering at Gujranwala’s Jinnah Stadium Sunday night, Khan said it was his democratic right to stage a peaceful protest as his demand for probe into alleged rigging in last year’s elections was not met.
“I am running out of patience now. I will confront if Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Nisar repeated August 30 episode of violence on our peaceful protesters,” he warned. “As long as I am alive, I will keep fighting for my rights. I am not going anywhere without getting justice,” he maintained.
Imran Khan stated that his protest sit-in in Islamabad was not to become a prime minister. Leadership of both PML-N and PPP were keeping their assets abroad and wanted others to bring investment in Pakistan, he said. Addressing PM Nawaz Sharif, the PTI chairman said: Mian Sahib, you should invest your own money in Pakistan before asking foreigners to investment in the country.
“The PTI will stage a big show on November 30; we invite all parties to attend the PTI public meeting at Islamabad. This day will be day of decision; either the corrupt government or our struggle will meet with success. We demanded vote verification in only four constitutions but it was not done by the corrupt government,” the PTI chairman went on to say.
Imran Khan said their party had given the government ample time to redress their grievances, but it seemed that the rulers were not willing to ensure democracy in the country. He urged the judiciary to rise to the occasion and play a role in providing justice to the nation by taking note of engineered election results.
He said that no prosperity could be possible when there is a corrupt government and the rotten system had been pushing the masses to the wall. He said PPP and PML-N have been ruling on turns while Pakistanis were being fooled for the past 66 years. But our struggle has been successful and now the nation has awakened and risen for change in the country, he added.
Imran Khan said the prevalent corrupt system would not bring change in the country until the masses stood up for their rights. He said his effort was not only against the rigging in general elections but the whole rotten system. Under the existing corrupt election system, he said, honest candidates could never defeat those coming to power through backdoors.
He said Pakistan had never seen real democracy and termed the present system “worst-ever monarchy”. He said the PTI would expose all political parties’ bad policies and announce its manifesto as a way forward to transform country into a real democratic Pakistan. He said there was a difference between democracy and monarchy. “In a democratic system, rulers are accountable to people. And in a monarchy, one man or his family rules the state without being accountable to anyone. PML-N was not a political party but a family enterprise and would never agree to such a move because they wanted power for themselves.”
The Sharifs, he said, have become royals because they and their family members are holding key posts. “They do not have democracy within their own party and want to run the country through their own family members.”
Imran alleged that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was involved in laundering money for the Sharif brothers, while former president Asif Ali Zardari was also involved in money laundering. Mr Khan challenged his opponents to prove any corruption in the PTI.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his address said that the massive gathering had proved that Gujranwala was a PTI fort. He said that people need food, shelter and clothes more than metro buses and trains. He said there was no place for corrupt leaders and masses have been awakened to get rid of this illegal government. He said the people were getting restless with every passing day due to many issues.
Rebutting the claim of PML-N that PTI leadership had connections with terrorists, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in his speech said he can reveal the faces of those who actually have relations with terrorists. He said no one have courage to stop the upcoming November 30 public meeting of PTI. He said the present government was taking its last breath and soon there would be rule of justice and real democracy.
The security men arrested three suspects from around the Jinnah Stadium. The local police also foiled a plot to attack Imran Khan with eggs and tomatoes ahead of the public meeting. Earlier in the day, TV channels reported that angry Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) activists were gathering eggs, tomatoes and shoes to hurl those at the PTI chairman.
The eggs and tomatoes were shown inscribed with the slogan ‘Ro Imran Ro’ (Cry Imran Cry) – a coining of the ruling party activists in response to the PTI’s highly successful ‘Go Nawaz Go’ campaign. When the news was aired, local police took action and arrested four PML-N activists who confessed that they had planned to target Imran on Nowshera Road. They said the PTI chief used derogatory language against their leader Nawaz Sharif and they wanted to avenge that.
In a separate incident, PTI workers caught Bilal alias Lalu Butt, a PML-N activist, and handed him over to police for allegedly ruining posters of Imran Khan. Bilal claimed his innocence and said he had only been arrested on charges of being a ‘Butt’. PML-N supporters on Sunday also torched and spoiled PTI hoardings hours before Imran Khan’s address at the public meeting.
Denying these allegations, PML-N MPA Taufiq Butt said his party leadership had instructed them to ensure the rally was held peacefully. Commenting on the alleged hooliganism by PML-N workers, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi termed the act as ‘negative politics’ of PML-N. Claiming that government was creating hurdles for PTI, Qureshi said his party knows how to defend itself, adding that it was the responsibility of the government to provide security to Imran Khan.