ISLAMABAD: An official of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party of ex-premier Imran Khan said on Monday the party's Independence Day rally would be held in Lahore, after it was previously announced that the event would take place in Rawalpindi or Islamabad.
Pakistanis celebrate 14 August each year to commemorate the day when Pakistan achieved independence and was declared a sovereign state following the end of the British Raj in 1947.
Khan was ousted as PM in April in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence and has since been calling for early elections.
On Monday, PTI leader and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had told reporters in Multan Khan would stage a rally in Rawalpindi on August 13 to announce his "future strategy."
But Azhar Mashwani, an advisor on social media for Khan, said the rally would be held in Lahore.
"On the night of August 13 and 14, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the proud Pakistanis of Lahore will celebrate the 75th Independence Day in a grand manner at Hockey Stadium Lahore," Mashwani said. "Former Prime Minister Imran Khan will specially attend and address on this occasion."
Mashwani did not specify why the rally's venue was changed but there was widespread speculation it was to avoid a clash with the TLP religious political party, which had announced plans to hold a rally in Islamabad/Rawalpindi on the same day.
The PTI has held a rally before on August 14, the 2014 Azadi Movement that lasted from August 14 to December 17. The march was held in opposition to then Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif over claims of systematic election-rigging by his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party in the 2013 general election.