November 30 rally: Imran invites nation to ‘change its destiny’

GUJRANWALA/ISLAMABAD:

“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 24^th, 2014.