Pakistan: Imran Khan to announce date for mega protest next week

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said he would announce the date for his much-publicised mega protest next week to press for the dissolution of the National Assembly and announce snap polls in the country. Khan, 70, was disqualified on Friday by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for failing to inform it about the money he received after selling the state gifts, also known as the Toshakhana case.

Khan made the comments while addressing a press conference along with Senator Azam Swati, who was granted bail by a local court in a case about his controversial tweet against Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

“I will announce the date of the long march on either Thursday or Friday,” he said.

Khan also confirmed that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was having parleys with the federal government, but added that he was not expecting a meaningful outcome from them.

“Political parties always hold backdoor channel talks but I don’t think this ongoing talks will have any meaningful outcome,” he explained.

Khan said the current government led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was afraid of holding general elections after suffering defeat in the recently concluded bypolls.

He also warned if the federal government tried to stop his ‘organised protest’, then there would be chaos.

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Khan had made calls for the ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’ (real freedom march) during a meeting held at his Bani Gala residence here on October 3.

This will be Khan’s second major rally, after the first one, known as the “Azadi Rally,” which he had called on May 25, was abruptly called off at the last minute after his party workers arrived at the federal capital.

During Saturday’s press conference, Khan also came down heavily on the security officials for allegedly subjecting Swati to custodial torture.

“I will raise the matter of Azam Swati at every forum,” Khan asserted.

He also asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of this incident.

“The Chief Justice must take notice of this incident. If you allow this to continue then Pakistan will be turned into a banana republic,” Khan noted.

Meanwhile, Khan has lambasted ECP verdict in the Toshakhana case, contending that someone else was “behind the verdict” against him.

“One thing is sure that he (CEC) cannot give this verdict on his own. Everyone knows that he is a servant of the Sharif family but this should be investigated if he was ‘kicked’ from somewhere else,” he added.

On Saturday, Khan filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court through his counsel Barrister Ali Zafar.

The PTI chief in his appeal said that the ECP had no power to make decisions on corrupt practices or disqualify people, requesting the court to suspend the body’s ruling until the final decision on the appeal.

The filing of the appeal put Khan on a path to go through a gruelling legal battle to regain his political turf in the wake of his disqualification.

Since he was ousted from power in April, Khan, the cricketer-turned politician, has repeatedly claimed that the no-trust motion against him was the result of a “foreign conspiracy”.

He has emphasised that his party would not deal with or accept the “imported government” headed by Sharif.

• Pakistan