Imran says PTI to join Qadri in protest movement

PTI chief demands CJP to take notice of security expenditure being incurred on protecting ruling family

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has announced it will join the Pakistan Awami Tehreek in its Jan 18 protest against the Punjab government for its failure to penalise those responsible for the Model Town incident.

"I will ask my party workers to be ready to join the protest on January 18," PTI Chairman Imran Khan said while addressing a news conference in Bani Gala.

Earlier, PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadir had announced he will start an anti-government movement from January 18 after the January 7 deadline given by a multi-party conference demanding resignations of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah over the Model Town carnage expired.



Khan said that he would join Qadri along with his supporters on January 18.

A senior PTI leader said that a committee comprising Punjab's leadership of the PTI was being formed that will decide the modus operandi of the protest on January 18. The committee will decide whether the PTI should become part of the protest only for a day or throughout the protest movement, he added.

The PTI chief also demanded of the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the Model Town tragedy. He further said that the chief justice should also take notice of the security expenditures being incurred on the personal residence of the Sharif family in Jati Umra from the national exchequer.

He questioned which country could spend an amount of Rs7 billion on the security of a ruling family. He said 2,500 police personnel had been deputed in Jati Umra and questioned why the Sharif family did not arrange its personal security instead of relying on the national exchequer.

Khan, condemning the abduction and subsequent killing of Zainab in Kasur, said that the state would have to form a mechanism to avoid such incidents in the future.

He also criticised the Punjab government and the Punjab police for their failure to trace the culprits. He also claimed that the performance of K-P police was far better as compared to Punjab police because the latter had been politicised.

He said that this was the 12th incident of abduction and killing of minor girls in Kasur and asked why no one took notice of it. He further said that someone should have taken notice on the Kasur child abuse video scandal.

The PTI chairman said the whole nation had shown unity after the gruesome incident in Kasur like it was shown after the APS tragedy. He said that the father of the girl and people have shown the same reaction that they had confidence only in the chief justice and chief of army staff (COAS).

The people have no confidence in the Punjab government and the police, he added.

While quoting the report of a former Punjab police chief, he said this was because the PML-N had made appointments in Punjab police without merit. "That is why Punjab Police is corrupt."



He said that the DPO Kasur, who was responsible for the killing of two innocent persons, was the one who had ordered the police in Faisalabad to fire bullets at a PTI activist in 2014.

He also criticised Shehbaz Sharif for visiting Kasur in the wee hours of Thursday morning and questioned why the chief minister visited the house of the victims in the darkness of the night.

Commenting on the remarks of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif about Bangladesh's leader Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman, Khan said that perhaps the former prime minister was giving some messages to India.

He alleged that Sharif wanted to damage the whole system only to save his skin from his conviction in the corruption references.