Screengrab of the PTI’s oath-taking ceremony
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday took oaths of support from party lawmakers, office-bearers, and members, directing them to consider his ‘Haqiqi Azadi’ movement a ‘jihad.’
In scenes that eerily echoed Nazi processions in Germany, Khan could be seen leading the oath, with party leaders Ali Amin Gandapur; Shah Mahmood Qureshi; Pervaiz Khattak and Shah Farman joining him on stage. The participants raised their right arm from the shoulder as they took oath—much like the Nazi salute—and pledged to support Khan’s movement at all costs.
“We will consider the party’s movement for real independence as a jihad, and will render all kinds of sacrifices for the cause,” read the oath, concluding with calls to uphold the Constitution.
The event, in Peshawar, was part of a series of gatherings attended by Khan on Tuesday, as he ramps up efforts to organize a long march on Islamabad in a bid to oust the incumbent government. According to sources within the PTI, the former prime minister has directed his party’s legal wing to prepare for mass arrests of supporters. Similarly, he has directed doctors affiliated with the PTI to be ready to offer medical aid to anyone who might require it during the long march.
While Khan has not yet issued any date for the long march, he keeps asserting that an announcement will come “soon.” In this regard, he has reportedly directed all lawmakers—past and present—to start preparing lists of people they would travel with to Islamabad.
Real power
But while Khan is preparing for a long march allegedly being organized to force the government to step down, senior PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has made it clear that the party would only negotiate with the security establishment.
In a series of appearances on several TV channels on Tuesday night, he said the real power in the country lies with the establishment and there was no point in talking to anyone else. Claiming that all decisions in Pakistan are made by “unelected” people, he said it was a “collective failure” of Pakistan’s politicians that they had failed to devise any system that allowed opponents to sit together and negotiate an end to crises.