ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday announced his decision to hold his first public rally in Peshawar on Wednesday after being removed as the country's prime minister through a no-confidence vote.
Khan resigned as a member of the National Assembly only a day after his ouster from the country's top political office on Sunday.
The former prime minister lost his majority last month when his government's largest ally in the National Assembly, the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), quit the ruling coalition and agreed to side with the opposition in the no-confidence motion. Prior to that, over a dozen lawmakers from his own political party had also defected.
Khan and his close aides have frequently described the no-confidence vote as part of a larger foreign conspiracy to bring down the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration.
"On Wednesday I will be holding a jalsa [public rally] in Peshawar after Isha [evening prayers] -- my first jalsa after being removed through a foreign-instigated regime change," he said in a Twitter post. "I want all our people to come, as Pakistan was created as an independent, sovereign state not as a puppet state of foreign powers."
"We are demanding immediate elections as that is the only way forward -- to let the people decide, through fair & free elections, whom they want as their prime minister," he added.
The National Assembly of Pakistan elected the former leader of the opposition, Shehbaz Sharif, as the country's new prime minister on Monday.
Khan's PTI party raised objections while Sharif was submitting his nomination papers, pointing out that he had several corruption references pending against him.
The new prime minister and several of his political colleagues have denied such charges against them, saying the accountability drive launched by the previous government against them was politically motivated.
