Thousands gathered against the backdrop of the Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi to support the PTI chief, who flew in from the capital, where his party and supporters have been camped in the Red Zone for the past 39 days.
Referring to his ongoing sit-in in Islamabad, the PTI chairman said that the people of Pakistan have been struggling to make a “naya Pakistan.”
He called on the people of Karachi to support his struggle and claimed to have come to the city to “unite everyone” – Sindhis and Muhajirs alike.
“The sit-in will continue till Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns,” he reiterated. “It is our fundamental right to elect our leaders through our votes, not through rigging.”
Imran assured his supporters that he would win the “war” against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“God has trained your kaptaan to compete and I will compete,” the PTI chairman said, adding, “Nawaz Sharif, you will have to resign.”
Lashing out at the premier, Imran said, “The US, Saudi Arabia and Gullu Butts will not be able to save you. No one can save you.”
Citing the various problems faced by residents of Karachi, particularly the law and order situation, he alleged that target killings could not occur without the involvement of the government.
“We will arrest target killers in Karachi within months,” he claimed.
He went on to say that since no one has been held accountable for rigging in the general elections, he came out on the streets to ensure free and fair elections in the future.
There would be no prosperity until and unless there is justice and rule of law in the country, he added.
Imran went on to say that “three institutions need to be revamped, namely education, police and judiciary.”
“Police has to be depoliticised and impartial,” he said, adding, “In Khyvber-Pakhtunkhwa police has zero interference and selection is made on merit. We will bring impartial police here in Karachi,” he said.
Refuting claims that he has been staging his sit-in on the directions of “someone”, Imran questioned the crowd if they were directed by someone to attend his rally.
Imran was joined at the rally by PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen, Arif Alvi, former cricketer Javed Miadad, former olympian Samiullah Khan, and the ever popular DJ Butt, among others. Apart from the tunes, supporters were also treated to a display of fireworks.
Meanwhile, PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi thanked the people of Karachi who stood in line for several hours to vote for Imran Khan during the 2013 general elections.
“I admit we couldn’t give as much attention to Interior Sindh but we (PTI) promise we will go to every street and every corner of Sindh,” the former foreign minister said.
“Today, people don’t see PPP as Bhutto’s party but as Zardari’s party,” said Qureshi, adding, “People in Sindh will come out on the streets to oppose Zardari’s power.”
The PTI vice chairman lashed out at both the PML-N and PPP while addressing supporters in Karachi.
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Which one you like the best? Bow Nawaz Bow (authored by me) or Go Nawaz Go (authored by unknown). Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Former Diplomat / zaidiformerdiplomat@hotmail.com
I am not bothered about the number of head counts, whether it was 10,000 or 200,000 all I know is that these men and women were not brought in buses, trucks and tractor trollies by Police and Patwaris and unlike MQM, Imran Khan's PTI had no solid organizational structure (no sector commanders or street & mohalla teams) in Karachi that could force, persuade and transport an ocean of humanity to Mizar-e-Quaid. They came of their free will, because they wanted to.
Go Nawaz Go
Go Nawaz Go
A great message by a great person.
INTELLIGENCE BUREAU ESTIMATED AT LEAST 500,000! People saying attendance wasn't good? something is wrong with you. 500000 people in three days notice is no joke! Sometimes I really wonder, maybe we get these incompetent rulers because we ourselves are our worst enemies. IK 's main purpose was to unite Karachi, not create more divides. He didn't say anything about PPP and MQM but he talked about the dynasties. MQM is irrelevant now anyways, they need thappa mafias to win, all of Karachi knows this.
According to a Samaa reporter the length of the road was 1.5km with width of approx 300 feet. Despite the huge size of the road, people were spread upto numaish on the left and gurumandar on the right. there were people on the mazar's wall too and on trees and on the poles. some intelligence agencies claim 60-70,000, police saying 100,000 and neutral observers are claiming a crowd of around 150,000-200,000.
@Unfortunate: London Plan is now being referred to as Londongate as it has been exposed and did not succeed.
80-100,000 or even 200,000 in a city of 20 mil does not mean you have a majority, it does not mean the ''nation'' is with you! instead if you look at it that way, it means 20 mil minus 200,000 reject you
80-100,000 or even 200,000 in a city of 20 mil does not mean you have a majority, it does not mean the ''nation'' is with you!
Why is Karachi saying Nawaz go? There's PPP government in Sindh last I checked. They should shout go Zardari/Altaf go
@Iqbal hadi Who cares if NS saw the Jalsa or not! Next election is in 2018 Period. Get it and grow up.
Forget the numbers, in this state of affairs, Nawaz has Go, Go, Go
I am now convinced that no party in Pakistan has the street power like MQM.
Rally was ok man, not that big, MQM definitely had total control of Karachi and Hyderabad.
AH joins in the London plan. Backstage coalescence through unseen forces through PAT. First PTI was engaged and now Bhai joins the two.
Heat is on. Go Nawaz go
@Sadia: I think you are confusing PTI's rally with the MQM one.
PTI failed to bring out the public today. More people show up to MQM corner meetings.
I do support PTI, but let's be honest, today's Karachi turnout was quite disappointing and we have to admit that. Now, this is something I predicted long time ago that if Imran ignores Karachi, this will happen, and today's rally proved that PTI graph has fallen dramatically in Karachi. Now, we need to refocus our efforts in other areas, let this be a lesson to our leadership.
Atleast 100 K people participated in it.
People saying crowd was around 10K should speak honestly. Is it possible that an 8 lane road having width of around 200 feet and having length of around 200 to 300 meters while also convering front part of M.A Jinnah road will only have a space for 10 K people ???
Total useless "leader" who doesn't have zero but negative performance in KPK
Didn't PM Nawaz see Imran Khan's jalsa in Karachi today evening?? Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Former Diplomat / zaidiformerdiplomat@hotmail.com
You have to admit, attendance was low but still not bad, good job PTI.
What happened to Insafians yaar, public attendance was not good I'm not happy we need to do better then that.
@Mahdi:
LOL I have lived all my life in Karachi - may be more than the years you have been to Earth. Today's crowd was easily more than 100K something which even MQM can be proud of.
"jalsa? what jalsa? " - Status quo in denial. blind and deaf idiots sitting in our parliament.
Just came back from jalsa, it was definitely more than 150,000. Those who counted 10,000 need to revisit their 3rd grade maths.
OMG, I live only 15 min away from venue, there WERE NOT 100,000 people there, what a lie !!! More like 15,000
Give me one good reason to support you Mr khan.
Lets hope he doesnt betray people of Karachi again like he did after elections. Not mentioning rigging in Karachi or Zahra Shahid has forced many to smell a rat. He would do well to remember that people of Karachi support him as an alternative to the corrupt but more importantly extremely incompetent PPP-MQM alliance so softcorner for either of the party wont be welcome.
@Zawn: I was there too. You need glasses. We were 20,000 best case unfortunately
@Fawad: @Jan Khan: 10000? Bahahaha. I went to the jalsa myself there was easily 250,000 to 400,000 people. The entire road leading up to the jalsa was packed with PTI cars. There has got to be something mentally wrong with you two.
Listening to some PTI leader Shafqat Mahmood today talking about how farmers life has improved tremendously in Punjab compared to other provinces but the same leader has audacity to say PMLN has nothing to do with it.. This is why PTI was rejected and will happen again in 2018. So much campaign ammunition is given by PTI to N.
PMLN and Nawaz is the ONLY target of PTI for last 3 years. Nothing about MQM today. This is great, it is exposing PTI and I further. N will use this in his next election campaign in 2018 and PTI will lose to N again.
80-100,000?? Wow, talk about really misleading journalism. More like 8-10,000
@salman: Yeah, OK, you probably don't even live in KARACHI.
@Jan Khan: brother, if you don't like IK, that's fine. But you saw only 10,000 people?! Were you only counting the people on stage?:) Even police said it was 100k.
Haha, he targeted every political party and leader except for MQM and Altaf Hussain, as he did not want to disturb the hornets nest.
Fantastic turnout. At least 150,000. I was there. Karachi has spoken with one voice: "Go Nawaz Go".
@jan khan. are you blind? the report itself says 80,000-100,000. even this is very conservative. the roads were all full. it was atleast 150,000-200,000. The atmosphere was electric, people were so charged, they cud've waited for hours and hours only to take a glimpse of their great khan. #GoNawazGo
I agree, turnout was low, I don't know what happened.
I am 42 years old and I am sick of both the PML N and PPP.
Just came from Karachi Julsa. Crowd was huge and his popularity seems to be increasing in Karachi by every passing day.
Give people right to governance itself through L.B ,treat Karachi as a metropolitan city like New Delhi,London etc1.Karachi should be run by people of Karachi not from Islamabad,Lahore or from Zardari house.2)Rangers should be sent back and equal amount of police personnel amount of police personnel be hired from Karachi who has done matric from a school of Karachi,import of police from Punjab and KP should be stopped as they do not offer jobs to people of Karachi3)stop on land grabbing and vacate the grabbed land4)City should be given its due share from the the revenue it generate 6)Jobs generated in karachi should be given to people of Karachi as done in other parts of country but people of Karachi are robbed of their birth right...............Problem of Karachi can be solved when people in power corridor consider it as part of Pakistan in letter and sprit not for only collecting revenue..SOLVE THE ABOVE PROBLEM PEOPLE OF KARACHI WILL SUPPORT YOU
PML(N) and other democratic forces don't think this is a war nor you are an enemy. In our opinion you are just a disillusioned, confused and unpredictable leader who have nothing else to do. However, Fake Revolutionary Thug is State's enemy number one and we will not let him win.
Turnout of 10,000 after 1 1/2 years absence in a city of 20 million, not a good sign for PTI.
Low turnout, disappointing.