Daily Times

Former prime minister Imran Khan announced Saturday that the PTI would begin the anti-government march towards Islamabad in the last week of May.

“We will be giving this call to all Pakistanis, not just PTI supporters, as Pakistan has been insulted after the country’s most corrupt people were imposed on us by a foreign power,” Khan said in a video statement.

He said the decision was taken in a meeting of the PTI’s core committee. He explained that the call was being given because the country was “insulted” and “the most corrupt people were placed atop the country via a foreign conspiracy.”

Imran lashed out at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet, saying that the former was being referred to as “crime minister” and he had corruption cases against him while 60 per cent of the cabinet’s members were also out on bail. “I want to give a message to all of Pakistan to start preparing from now. The start of our preparation will be chaand raat (eve of Eid) and I want to say specifically to the youth that you have to come out with flags and tell the whole world that the Pakistani nation is alive.”

He predicted that the march to Islamabad would be the “biggest” in Pakistan’s history and a “sea of people” would flood into the city and give the message that “never after this will any foreign country be able to place a corrupt group over us and Pakistan’s nation will make its own decisions.”

On April 10, Khan became the first prime minister to be ousted from office through a no-confidence motion, following which, PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the new premier.

Addressing a workers’ convention at Aiwan-e-Iqbal in Lahore on Wednesday, the former premier had called for two million people to reach Islamabad when he gives the call. He said that the country stood at a crucial juncture and warned that if this “imported government” succeeded, then no future prime minister would be able to counter any foreign conspiracy.

“When you go to the people, you have to tell them that an ‘imported government’ has been put in place through conspiracy. It means that now the United States will control Pakistan through these stooges and boot polishers,” he said.

PTI chief reiterated that his government was ousted because he wanted to follow an independent foreign policy that would benefit the people of Pakistan.