Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted from power through voting on a no-confidence motion by the opposition parties in the Parliament, has launched a serious political offensive against the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government through massive public rallies across the country, and is gearing up to gather at least two million people to march towards the capital Islamabad, choking major cities of the country, until his demand for immediate elections is met.
Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been staging massive public rallies in major cities, gathering widespread support of the masses, calling them on to be ready to march towards Islamabad to stage a protest sit-in, creating intense pressure on the government to announce early elections.
PTI sources said the party plans to choke major cities and arteries leading to the federal capital. As per details shared by sources, PTI has finalised its plans to lead its anti-government long march, which include blocking routes leading to and from the capital Islamabad.
“As soon as the call for the long march is announced, various cities will be jammed. The points of convergence have also been determined for the demonstrations to bring the city to a complete halt,” a PTI source stated.
Tactics are also being finalised to escape possible arrests.
“In case the key leaders are arrested, a stand-in leadership will fill in for the central leadership to issue guidelines to the workers in the long march and a call will be given to intensify the protest against the forced arrests,” the source maintained.
While inside plans of PTI seem ready to resist any use of force against them, PTI’s Vice President and former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry insisted that the long march will remain peaceful.
“It will be a peaceful protest by millions of people. Our protest rallies have been completely peaceful till today,” he said.
“Millions of people came out to show solidarity with the PTI and not even a branch of a tree was damaged. This protest will also be in the same mode,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention that Imran Khan has been holding massive public gatherings where tens of thousands of his supporters have been present, giving a clear and strong signal to the ruling government that his political acceptance exists strongly among the people along with his narrative that he was ousted from power through a well-planned ‘conspiracy’ of a regime change, led by the Joe Biden administration in the US and implemented through Khan’s opposition.
Khan has said that he will give a call for the long march by the end of May and before that, he will be holding public rallies in different parts of the country and strengthening the momentum for the long march, where he claims to bring at least two million people.
(IANS)
