Imran Khan speaks at a rally in Rawalpindi.
Rawalpindi:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan said Saturday his party decided to resign from provincial parliaments rather than march on Islamabad to force the Shehbaz Sharif-led government to announce early elections.
Speaking at a large rally for his Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaf party here in this garrison town, home to the powerful army’s headquarters, Khan also claimed that “three criminals” behind the failed assassination attempt on him earlier this month waiting to target him again.
” عمران خان
#حقیقی_آزادی_لانگ_مارچpic.twitter.com/sAVUqRZk2M
— PTI (@PTIofficial) November 26, 2022
The 70-year-old leader, who appeared with a cast on his right leg, has repeatedly claimed that Prime Minister Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and the head of the ISI counter-intelligence wing, Major General Faisal Naseer, were behind the attack on him.
“We will not be part of this system. We have decided to leave all meetings and get out of this corrupt system,” Khan said in his first personal address to party officials after the failed assassination attempt on his life.
“I will urge all prime ministers and party leaders to leave the gatherings,” he said, adding that his party had decided not to go to Islamabad to avert any destruction or chaos.
Imran Khan’s party has governments in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as well as in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also represented in the assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan.
The party legislators had already resigned from the National Assembly, but the resignations of all legislators were not accepted.
Khan also announced that he would continue his protest until new elections were announced. Elections in Pakistan are not due until the end of the term of the current National Assembly in August 2023.
“The movement of Haqeeqi Azadi will continue until real freedom is achieved,” he said, adding that the moment would come once new elections were held.
He said today’s rally was held because “we want elections” to move the country forward. “I’m here to tell them that there is no other way but elections.” Khan also said the country is heading for a default that would endanger its national security. He said the risk of default is over 100 percent, which was just 5 percent when his government was overthrown in April.
During his almost 80-minute speech, he also spoke about the dirt in the country and accused the powerful establishment (army) of tolerating corruption.
Khan said his government is successful, but its only flaw is that it cannot bring the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption agency, under its control to punish the corrupt people.
“It (NAB) was controlled by the establishment. Instead of taking the corrupt element to court, the establishment made a deal with them,” he said.
He added, “Those in power have nothing against corruption… That’s why they installed the corrupt elements.” He also spoke of the conspiracy to overthrow his government and the establishment’s failure to stand up to it. “If they (the establishment) didn’t commit the conspiracy, they failed to stop it,” he said.
Just a glimpse of the historic and huge crowd of Rawalpindi! 🇵🇰 #حقیقی_آزادی_لانگ_مارچpic.twitter.com/MTc0R26792
— PTI (@PTIofficial) November 26, 2022
Khan also said the establishment could have stopped what he called corrupt elements from returning to power, but it has not done so.
He reiterated that a foreign conspiracy was being hatched to overthrow his government and that this had been proven by the secret cipher presented before the National Security Council meeting attended by the top military leadership.
Speaking about the attack on his convoy in Wazirabad on November 3, he said there were three attackers including the one who was arrested and two others.
He said the second attacker fired at him but missed the target as he fell and the bullet went over his head while the third attacker was tasked with eliminating the first gunman and he fired but instead hit an innocent participant , who was killed.
He also defended his performance during his rule by claiming he turned the economy inside out despite the Covid-19 pandemic. He said growth was 5.7 percent in 2021 and 6 percent in 2022, the highest in 17 years.
Khan said that the price increase in the current government’s seven months has been the highest in the country’s past 50 years, while all other indicators have also fallen.
The former prime minister claimed that by ousting his government, the establishment had not only destroyed the economy but also dealt a blow to the country’s democracy, constitutionalism and morals.
Khan urged his followers to rid themselves of the fear of death if they wished to live freely.
“Fear enslaves an entire nation,” he said, referring to the Battle of Karbala in modern-day Iraq, where the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Hussain, was killed along with his family members for speaking out against the tyrannical ruler of his day had raised.
Khan, who was accompanied by a medical team when he arrived in the garrison town of Rawalpindi by helicopter on Saturday, said everyone advised him when he left Lahore because of his injured leg and the threats to his life.
He said he kept walking because he saw death up close.
“If you want to live life, avoid the fear of death,” he said.
Khan said the nation stands at a “crucial juncture” and “crossroads” with two paths ahead – one path being one of blessing and greatness, while the other is path of humiliation and destruction.
He asked people to distinguish between right and wrong.
Earlier, Khan had traveled in a special aircraft from Lahore to the Pakistan Air Force’s Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi. He was later flown by helicopter to Arid Agriculture University next to where he spoke in Rawalpindi.
The Rawalpindi administration had issued a notice stating that the England cricket team would soon be arriving in Rawalpindi and as a result the venue was to be completely vacated once the rally was over.
PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar said that Khan was under threat and the government would be responsible if anything happened to him.
The government implemented tight security measures and the police deployed sophisticated arrangements to provide security for the participants, and Khan, deputy police inspector for the operation Sohail Chatha, told the media.
He said more than 17,000 police officers were deployed to ensure security during the rally.
Sources said Rawalpindi police deployed over 300 snipers on rooftops to thwart any attempt on Khan’s life.
Rawalpindi has a history of attacks on politicians and so far two prime ministers have been killed in the garrison town, including first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951 and two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
The former cricketer-turned-politician was ousted from power in April after losing a vote of no confidence in his leadership, which he says was part of a US-led conspiracy to frame him for his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and China targeted Afghanistan. The US has denied the allegations.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)
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