Islamabad: Pakistan’s political temperature is rising as former Prime Minister Imran Khan has started a massive anti-government protest based campaign and called on his supporters to march together towards Islamabad by the end of May.
Khan claims that he will never accept the presence of the Shahbaz Sharif government, terming it as an imported one, brought into power through an international conspiracy.
Khan launched his public engagement and anti-government protest from his hometown Mianwali in Punjab province, slamming the current government for being a slave to what he called foreign masters.
“They (US) toppled me off power because I refused to take their dictation and worked towards forming Pakistan’s independent foreign policy,” he said.
“I will not rest until this imported government is taken off power and fresh elections are held. It will be the people who will decide Pakistan’s future. We will come back with two-third majority and will not accept this team of corrupt people who have been imposed on us,” he added.
Khan has called for a long march towards Islamabad by the end of May, in which he said he will be bringing at least three million people, who will not leave until the sitting government is taken off power and the country goes into general elections with immediate affect.
On the other hand, his political rival and co-chairperson of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Mariyum Nawaz Sharif, has also launched an anti-Imran, anti-PTI and pro-government campaign of public engagement as she showcased her first and impressive show of public might at Attock in Punjab province.
The public rally held by PML-N was attended by tens of thousands of party supporters and visibly showed equal public strength in comparison to the PTI rally.
“Imran Khan’s 3.5 years in power have been the worst disaster this country has witnessed because he drowned the country into severe crisis due to his incompetence,” said Mariyum Sharif.
“Imran Khan was a selected leader and when his artificial support ended, he fell face first,” she added.
The month of May is seeing a clear and visible show of strength and launch of election campaign by political parties fighting it out against each other at a time when the general elections are at least 1.5 years away.
According to analysts, the current coalition government knows that the country will have to go into early elections and that this present situation is an interim-setup. This is why two major political parties — PTI and PML-N — have started their election campaign through public engagements, showing clear signs of early elections in the country.
(IANS)
