PTI’s long march from Thursday

The PTI on Monday changed the schedule of its disrupted long march for the third time, announcing that the party would continue with its strides towards Islamabad on Thursday from Wazirabad – exactly from the point Imran Khan survived a gun attack four days ago.

The change came a day after Imran announced that PTI will be returning to the streets on Tuesday to pick up its long march where it left off after an attempt on his life and the subsequent hospitalisation.

However, in an abrupt change made earlier on Monday, Imran announced that the march dubbed as the ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’ will resume on Wednesday. Hours after his announcement, PTI leader Faisal Javed in a tweet announced that the party’s long march will begin on Thursday at 2pm.

PTI’s Secretary-General Asad Umar said he will participate in the long march with the party’s vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other colleagues in Wazirabad on Thursday.

“Shah Sahab [Qureshi] will lead the long march on GT Road and I will lead the march from Faisalabad Division,” he said in a tweet.

Umar in another tweet said he will begin the march from Toba Tek Singh which will pass through Jhang, Faisalabad, Jaranwala, Chiniot and Sargodha.

PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur will lead the caravan from the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa while K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Murad Saeed will lead the protesters from the Malakand region.

Senior PTI leader Pervez Khattak will lead the protest rally from Peshawar and Hazara divisions, he added.

Meanwhile, talking to a delegation of journalists earlier on Monday, PTI chief Imran Khan reiterated that the party would back down only after getting the date for general elections.

He maintained that no compromise can be made with coalition rulers, including PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

“The entire nation is prepared, and we will only return with the election date,” he said, adding that his long march would achieve its aim under 'any circumstances'.

Read Imran urges Alvi to 'act now' to stop abuse of power

Imran also clarified that the appointment of the chief of army staff was not his “issue", adding that the army belonged to the country and therefore it was not possible for his party to go against it.

“The soldiers at the borders are like my children,” he said.

The comment came days after Imran accused a senior military official of being involved in the alleged assassination bid against him.

Earlier in the day, Imran also penned a letter to President Arif Alvi saying that the entire nation has been supporting his call for "Haqeeqi Azadi" ever since the PTI government was toppled.

PTI has been facing false allegations, harassment, baseless arrests and tactics like torture in detention, he wrote, adding that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah repeatedly "threatens to kill me".

He urged the president to arrange an investigation to determine who is responsible and to hold the culprits accountable.

Meanwhile, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the Turkish government has offered medical treatment to Imran Khan in Turkey.

The former foreign minister said that he has spoken to the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who offered Imran, who is currently recovering in Lahore from the bullet injuries and was discharged from hospital a day earlier, to receive the rest of the medical treatment in Turkey.

He also expressed his gratitude to the countries who inquired after the PTI chief.

The announcement for the resumption of the long march came as the country is rattled by protests by PTI supporters who spilled onto the streets in various cities against the assassination attempt at the PTI chief’s life.

The protests also blocked the main highway between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Similarly, the PTI staged a protest outside Governor House in Lahore, demanding the registration of the first information report (FIR) of the assassination attempt on the former prime minister.