PESHAWAR - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that he had not struck any deal with any quarters or government but ended the long march in Islamabad to prevent further damage and bloodshed.
At the long march that was wrapped up on Thursday morning, Khan announced a six-day warning for the government to announce the election date, or else PTI will also bring three million marchers to the federal capital again.
Khan addressed a press conference in Peshawar a day after ending his “Azadi March”. Flanked by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and PTI leader Atif Khan, the former premier said: “There was anger among people due to the police actions during the long march, this is why the country might have plunged into chaos in case we continued with the long march as had earlier been announced.”
He also defended the participation of the KP chief minister in the long march. “The PTI leader is a citizen of Pakistan who has the right to protest against the government,” he said while referring to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s recent media statement that the federal government would take legal action against the CM for his participation.
He also criticised the [federal] government for what he called a brutal crackdown against the marchers and said that Rana Sanaullah had used police officers of his own choice to deal sternly with the PTI workers.
He also said that his “jihad” would continue against the government and that he was planning to stage a march again within the next six days. However, he warned that this time his activists would not be arrested as protest was their right.
He, however, said that negotiations with the government were possible, provided snap elections were held in June.
Later, the PTI chief, while talking to media in Mardan after offering condolence to the family of Syed Ahmed Shah, who had fallen down from Attock bridge during the PTI ‘Independence March’, said that the sacrifices of the martyrs of true freedom will not go in vain.
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan and others were present on the occasion.
He said that the children of the martyrs of independence March will be taken care of as much as possible. He said that the martyrs of Long March have made history and we are proud of this sacrifice.
Imran Khan assured full financial support to the children of the deceased. He said that PTI is in the field to free the nation from the rotten chains of 75-year slavery.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan Friday left his press conference midway after a journalist asked hard-hitting questions about governance and his party’s role on social media.
The reporter suggested to the ousted prime minister that the governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not up to the mark and that the province’s chief minister, Mahmood Khan, had himself taken the responsibility for media-related matters.