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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday announced that his party will stage a public rally at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore this Wednesday (March 22), describing it as a “referendum” against the incumbent government.
In a televised address delivered via video-link, he urged the public to join the rally to show its support for the PTI and its “real independence” movement. Earlier, Khan sought to justify his party’s mob violence in Islamabad by claiming he did not wish to exit his car to attend court proceedings at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad because he saw “unknown people” positioned there in a bid to assassinate him. “Had I not moved from the complex immediately that might have resulted in bloodshed as the police, Rangers and unidentified people were making all-out efforts to provoke my party workers to create a battleground and use it as a cover to kill me,” he claimed, accusing Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief organizer Maryam Nawaz—who holds no public office—of directing the “plan.”
Warning that “the game” will not be manageable if the “incumbent rulers do not show restraint,” he lashed out at police for “attacking” his Zaman Park residence on Saturday, claiming he had opted to wait a day to address the public because he would’ve uttered in anger things that should remain unsaid. He questioned how anyone could tolerate police desecrating the sanctity of home and women without search warrants and in violation of the court order. [The police did present an arrest warrant for entry to the residence]
“I have called my lawyers, discussed filing of cases against all the policemen who broke into my residence and ransacked the property, besides submitting a contempt of court plea in the Lahore High Court,” he said, as he accused the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for not restraining the caretaker government in Punjab. He said he would file a murder case against Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, policemen and others for the “murder” of PTI worker Ali Bilal. “The caretaker chief minister is doing everything except the job he was appointed for,” he claimed.
Referring to the judiciary, he claimed it was facing strong pressure from “unknown people,” and claimed that it was facing severe challenges in enforcing the writ of the state. “I keep things calm while they are in my control but situation gets out of my hand when the state suddenly attacks my workers and they are rendered on their own,” he claimed, in a bid to justify his workers’ repeated attacks on police and public property in recent days. “Things may go out of hand and people of Pakistan will forget Sri Lanka’s default crisis and may witness an Iran-like revolution. The only solution is holding free and fair general elections and let people decide to form their government,” he said, reiterating allegations of the former Army chief attempting to assassinate him at Wazirabad.
He also claimed he had cancelled an earlier rally planned for March 8 after the Punjab government had sought to “sabotage” it by imposing Section 144 in Lahore. “I know the caretaker government is looking for some disruption to make it an excuse and call off elections scheduled for April 30,” he claimed.