Home pitch: ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ is now the battle cry, says Imran

Thousands flock to Mianwali rally in show of power.

MIANWALI/ ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

Speaking to a large gathering of supporters in his hometown, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Thursday said it is the legal right of the people to express their dissatisfaction by chanting anti-government slogans.

“Pakistanis chanting ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ is not something bad or illegal. I wonder why the Sharif family is getting so upset by this slogan,” Imran said as people raised the slogan in a rising crescendo.

He warned the government not to use force against people chanting this slogan and said he would make sure that all ‘Gullu Butts’, who oppress the people for chanting this slogan, are brought to book.

“We’ll make a new Pakistan and will not stop protesting till we see the climax of the ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ campaign,” he said. He also criticised Maryam Nawaz and said that Sharif family was ruling the country like a royal family.

Imran asked the people not to take oppression and injustice lying down. “The nations that do not challenge oppression vanish,” he said, adding: “I have never bowed down in front of anyone nor will I let you do that.”



He said that the current government is in fact a dictatorship. He said people are paying loans and the rulers are stealing their peoples’ money. Imran Khan said people were toiling under the yoke of inflation. “How one can make ends meet when income is lower than expenditure,” he said.

The PTI chief also challenged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to gather a crowd equal to even 20% of the people present in the Mianwali rally. “If you manage to do this, I will admit that there was no rigging in the May 2013 elections and will accept your popularity among the masses,” he said. He said the PTI had arranged another massive political rally in three day after Lahore’s show. He claimed that other parties would need at least 6 months to do that.

“People who claim that they have received 15 million votes in the May 2013 elections can’t even gather 20 percent of the people present here at the PTI’s rally,” he added.

Making a comparison between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Punjab police, he said the people could see the difference as the K-P government is not training the police to become ‘Gullu Butt’. “People can’t get free justice in Punjab and they are reluctant to go to the police station to avoid litigation,” he claimed.

Imran also criticised the existing education system and called it faulty. “After coming to power, I will introduce a uniform system of education,” he said. He said it took him four years to get a land for his university. “If I had acquired the land in time, the university could have been extended today,” he added.

He said people of Mianwali had boosted his courage by joining hands with the PTI. “The way people of Mianwali have stood by me, I will never leave them alone,” he said.

He said he had never seen women of Mianwali in a public gathering before. “Mianwali is my priority after Lahore because the people of Mianwali have voted for me.”

Imran returns to Islamabad

Later, after returning to his D-Chowk container in Islamabad, Imran Khan claimed that it was the biggest rally in the history of Mianwali.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2014.