Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Sunday invited all political groupings and all Pakistanis to reach Islamabad on November 30 and change the course of their destiny.
“The time has come to change our fate and I assure you that your Kaptaan will not lose this opportunity,” Imran Khan told a massive public gathering in Gujranwala.
For the better part of a year, he said, his party had knocked every door and even approached the Supreme Court, parliament as well as Election Commission of Pakistan to investigate allegations of rigging in the May 2013 general elections but no one gave them justice.
“In this situation, I had two options; either to accept the injustice or to struggle; and I will struggle for my rights as long as I live,” he said.
The PTI chief claimed that he had gathered evidence showing how the elections were rigged in favour of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and he was prepared to share the same.
He pointed out that he had been staging a sit-in and living in a container for the last 102 days. “But now I have reached the threshold of my patience. Now it will be a fight,” he said, adding that the nation will have to rise for their rights on November 30.
Criticising the ruling PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party, Imran said these parties had established monarchies and distributed the key positions among their ‘princes’ and ‘princesses’.
“In a democracy, the brother of a prime minister does not hold the position of a chief minister,” Imran said in a reference to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. “In monarchies, however, you don’t have to consider merit,” he added.
He said his party wants to provide the youth with education and job opportunities; adding that it is peoples’ right to have a system based on merit, to have a real democracy and the power to hold the ruler accountable.
“Only a true democracy can empower people to ask the PM Nawaz Sharif and [the PPP co-chairman] Asif Ali Zardari how they amassed assets worth billions of rupees and how much tax they pay,” he said.
Talking about his recent rally in Larkana, Imran said he is thankful to God that the nation has risen from oblivion. Though the people of Sindh are politically aware, he said, their votes have usually gone out in the name of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “But who is Zardari to cash in on Bhutto’s name?”
The PTI chief also criticised the PML-N workers [Gullu Butts], who, according to him, opened fire at his supporters and injured 14 of them. “However, when I went to see these PTI supporters, I was astonished that even on hospital beds they were chanting ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ slogans,” he said.
He said that even after the media testified that around 100,000 people had turned up in Larkana the PPP called it a “corner meeting” as its leaders are feeling the heat.
Nov 30 rally might be postponed
Addressing the sit-in at Constitution Avenue after Gujranwala rally, the PTI chairman warned that in case of some untoward development his party would postpone the November 30 rally for a week.
“The government has increased the number of police personnel deployed in the red zone and has started blocking roads with containers,” he said. “We can use any card at any time,” Imran said while talking about his party’s strategy and options available to it.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.
COMMENTS (20)
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to all these Blithe, ch Allah Daad and others that CONSISTENTLY troll for NS, on all these newspapers Dawn,express etc , seem to comment on every IK news and are very consistent in their illogical commentry. One cannot expect any better if you follow NS since it is debatable if he has full load of neurons! You have to be blind not to see that the masses are now sick and tired off shareefs and zardaris and would like to give chance to someone new. Our conviction is further strengthened when we see the brains like pervez rashid from ruling party speaking on TV and spending governments millions in campaign adds and PMLN,JUIF and PPP uniting in their stance. The guy on the other side(ik) ought to be doing something right! It is quite noticable that express gives preferance to ani IK comments but for common readers it does not matter, we can see the same names trolling multiple times and at multiple websites, may be they are hired for the same. We atleast the expat majority is only paying attention to IK's call as we trust his integrity more than any news paper or other politician. We are inspired by his determination and conviction, precisely what pakistan needs.
it must be costing PLM a small fortune to payroll all these anti PTI trolls!
Seems for some of them it's a full time job!
wonder how they get paid....per post or by the hour?
I feel that Imran is playing the worst role ever played by any politician in Pakistan.
Imran's every move is against Pakistan and democracy. He is a puppet of Establishment.
@Ch. Allah Daad: you look very pro-pmln? looks like you spend quite a lot of time looking for news on khan sb so you can put down your nawaz nama ... what do u know about the common man? have you been abused? robbed? assaulted? injured? property stolen? family member murdered? or kidnapped?
or all this happened to your beloved nawaz shareef?
we all saw rigging happening with our own eyes...it is nawaz who has done everything to come into power.. u guys deserve such evil governors basically....who will crush you till you die or surrender your wealth and respect..
GO NAWAZ GO...and please take this chaudary sb along...
I stand by the vision of neya pakistan...we have tried and tested all parties...enough chances given to these politicians...we are where we were many yrs back...
time to change! time to step into neya pakistan...
No hope from Imran. He is wasting nation's time.
@bilal: Some people (a.k.a. PTI trolls) have chosen "willful blindness" for themselves and continue to believe in Imran Khan absolutely forgetting the millions of fake deadlines, fake allegations and fake claims he has been making over the past 100 days.
I am going......all are Welcome with an open heart.
@Ch. Allah Daad: Please look at the photo in the article. The injustice you are talking about has not been done to IK. But it has been done to the thousands of people who are standing in the Jalsa in front of IK. They are the one's who are suffering and IK is not fighting for himself but he is fighting for us. I have seen many of your comments, I don't know if you will ever be convinced but trust me, if you put faith in him, he will not let you down.
Contrary to some of the comments above, PTI is the most popular & only national party in the country. No doubt the elections were stolen and boxes need to be re-opened and looked at. Soon the results of NA-122 will aid the above argument.
Keep going IK - most of us Pakistani Americans will continue to support your struggle.
A truly spectacular crowd again! I am sure Nawaz Shareef cannot manage even half of these crowds in his so-called home ground, simply because crowds are visible and cannot be rigged like votes, and whatever crowd he may gather, many of them would be there to raise that infamous slogan "Go Nawaz Go".
Reality check : the "umpire" has achieved all the objectives from the dharnas. He would not wish to change a lame and weak government and bring another government and start from the beginning. So, the next elections will be in 2018, and PTI, if won, will be at the receiving end from the umpire. So stop wasting energy on strikes and dharnas and do something constructive.
What a joke, PTI could only attract 3 to 5 thousand people as per estimates released by agencies. Goes to tell who side the masses are on. Shame that PTI was not even able to bring more than 50K people from across Pakistan for the dharna.
O spare us your lies and hate Imran Khan. PTI and its leader is delusional when they say masses have rejected the sitting government. How did Imran Khan decide that when only 40 to 50 come to listen to him at the dharna. If the masses wanted a change they would have converged on Islamabad instead of a few thousand paid protestors that TUQ and PTI brought. So dear PTI and liar khan relax, the government doesnt fall on lies and even if it does we don't want your vision of naya Pakistan.
I learnt something which most TV viewers do not know. Samaa, Dunya and One news are subsidiaries of PTV and subservient to Perv Rashid.You will find the identical tickers on these channels.
When he says no one gave him justice he means no one gave him the result he wanted... also we expect him to now call for people to stop following traffic rules... oh wait they already do
What injustice have been done to you? Have you been abused, robbed, assaulted, injured, property stolen, family member murdered or kidnapped? You contested elections and lost. Majority of disputed results have already been sorted out and rest are under consideration. As an old person, you knew very well that our courts processes were slow but you never stood for common people and remained silent when they were denied justice, instead you sided with exploiters and now you are exploiting poor common people for your own personal gains. Shame on you.
Mashah Allah... great gathering by PTI.
The only monarchy I wish to see stopped is that of Imran Khan who is stubborn and obsessed with power. He will stop at nothing to gain power even if that means damaging the country. I am just sick about hearing about his nonsensical dharnas and quick fix scheme for the country instead of showing maturity and working hard within the system to make a better nation.