Political pressure: Imran Khan ups the ante

PTI chairman threatens to march on Raiwind after Eid if PM fails to answer four questions .

LAHORE: Ratcheting up political pressure on the ruling Sharif family, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan warned on Saturday that his party would march on their residence in Raiwind after Eidul Azha, if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not answer his four questions.

Speaking to a huge crowd of supporters at Lahore’s Charring Cross, Imran posed four questions before Premier Nawaz: First, show the ownership documents of the Park Lane apartments in London; second, tell the nation how did the family amass billions of rupees to buy the London properties? Third, how the money was transferred abroad – through legal banking channel or through money laundering? And fourth, were taxes paid on the money.



If Nawaz failed to answer the questions, the PTI would march on the Sharif family estate on the edge of Lahore after Eidul Azha, Imran said concluding his PTI’s Pakistan March, which is part of the party’s Tehreek-e-Ehtesab (Accountability Campaign).

The PTI has been calling for an independent inquiry into revelations in the Panama Papers that three scions of the Sharif family are among hundreds of Pakistani politicians and businessmen who have secreted their money in offshore tax havens.

Imran mocked the silence of Premier Nawaz since the Panama Papers were published, saying that the premier was intentionally delaying a response. He said that financial corruption would increase manifold, if Nawaz survived the Panamagate scandal.

The PTI chairman requested the Supreme Court to put Nawaz on the exit control list until the matter was investigated. The PTI chairman praised the judiciary, the media and the police for not being ‘sell-outs’. He also heaped praise on army chief General Raheel Sharif for refusing a PMLN government offer to elevate him as field marshal.



Tens of thousands of PTI supporters gathered in the Shahdara area of Lahore where they were joined by workers of other political parties, including Pakistan Awami Tehreek and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. Even though the administration had put up shipping containers to block main arteries of the city, a large number of people managed to show up.

The rally made brief stopovers at Azadi Chowk, Bhatti, Nasir Bagh and Lahore High Court en route from Shahdara to Charing Cross. Imran delivered speeches at all of these junctions as hundreds of workers poured in to hear their leader. A large crowd welcomed the caravan at Bhatti as workers cheered and chanted pro-PTI slogans.

Imran was accompanied by key PTI leaders, including Jehangir Khan Tareen, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Abdul Aleem Khan, Ejaz Chaudhry and opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed.

Upon arrival at Charring Cross, PPP’s Latif Khosa said he was there on the instructions of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “This must be considered that Bilawal is standing next to Imran Khan,” he said. “We will hold them accountable for every penny,” he added.

PML-Q’s Kamil Ali Agha said containers could never stop people from demanding justice. “Rest assured, [Indian prime minister Narendra] Modi’s friends can no longer rule this country,” he said.

With reports of the rally’s route being blocked, the party chief warned the government against unnecessarily obstructing the rally. “This is a different PTI. This is the post-Dharna PTI,” he added. The PTI leadership criticised the Punjab government for trying to obstruct their ‘peaceful rally’.



Intervention by party’s local leadership, including their Lahore wing, with the local authorities resulted in opening up of roads ahead of Imran’s arrival at Shahdra.

Party leaders alleged that the local authorities had placed containers 500 meters away from major junctions along the rally’s route.

Imran also took digs at NAB, FBR and the ECP for their inaction despite ‘clear evidence’ in the Panama Papers. He also lashed out at the ECP, asking how long it would continue to act like the ‘B-team’ of the PML-N. “We are not pressuring the institutions. We are making them realise their responsibility,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2016.