Former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday urged his supporters to gather in Rawalpindi from across the country on November 26, vowing to present his next plan of action against the government then.
Ousted via a parliamentary vote in April, Khan has refused to recognize the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and accused it of conspiring with Washington to remove him from office. The allegations have been denied by both Sharif and the US, as ever.
Khan has demanded snap elections across the country, which Sharif and his coalition government have repeatedly rejected. Khan’s supporters are marching toward the capital, Islamabad, so that Sharif caves in and announces early elections.
His march came to an abrupt halt on November 3 when Khan and 11 others were injured in a gun attack in Wazirabad city. The march resumed last Thursday without Khan, who is recovering from gunshot wounds in Lahore.
“You all have to reach Rawalpindi on November 26 between 1pm to 2pm,” he said, addressing his supporters who were gathered in Rawat—a town on the outskirts of Islamabad—through a video link from his Lahore residence.
“I’ll meet you there,” he assured supporters. “I’ll be giving you the next plan of action there.”
Khan reiterated his demand for free and fair elections to pull Pakistan out of its current economic and political turmoil, saying that the government has “no roadmap” to solve people’s problems.
“We’ll demand one thing and that is free and fair elections,” he said, promising that his movement will continue till “genuine freedom” is not achieved. “We want a sovereign country where the nation makes its own decisions independently,” Khan said. He questioned the role of the powerful military establishment for allegedly imposing a government of what he called a “cabal of crooks.”
“I want to ask the establishment, what happened during the three-and-a-half years of my rule that they [the rulers] became eligible to be imposed on us,” he asked. Khan said the Sharifs and Zardaris, Pakistan’s two prominent political families, were removed from power by the military in the ’90s on allegations of corruption.
“Tell me of a single benefit that they have brought to Pakistan in the last seven months,” he said, adding that all economic indicators, including industrial and agricultural growth, were positive during his tenure.
Khan urged all Pakistanis to be part of his anti-government protest march to bring about real change in the country through a peaceful struggle. “You can’t be neutral,” he told supporters. “Your future generations will repent if you become neutral now.”
