ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s party has announced countrywide protests on Saturday against a gun attack on him, a senior party leader said, hours after the ex-premier postponed his anti-government march on Islamabad.
Khan was shot in the leg on Thursday as he waved to crowds from a container mounted on a truck from where he was leading a protest march on the capital to press for early elections and calling for the resignation of PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Khan, who was ousted in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April, told supporters from a hospital on Friday he would resume his march to Islamabad after recovering from the “assassination” attempt.
While Khan supporters staged protests and blocked roads in major cities on Friday, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said it had planned demonstrations across the country on Saturday evening.
“There will be protest gatherings in all the cities of Pakistan tomorrow at 5 o’clock. The protest site of each city will be announced by local [party] chapters,” Asad Umar, a close Khan aide, said on Twitter.
“Show them that no one can suppress a truly free nation. I myself will participate in the protest at Liberty Chowk, Lahore.”
Arab News spoke to a number of Khan supporters in Lahore on Friday and they said they would not back off on their demands.
“There are a lot of fighters here, your prisons are few,” rhymed Zafar Mehmood Bhatti, a Khan supporter.
“This tear gas, these bullets, these batons are nothing, tyrant. To kill us, you have very few weapons.”
Qamar Cheema said there was nothing more important than Khan for them and so was he their “red line.”
“He is the only leader who is right for Pakistan’s welfare, permanence and its progress,” she told Arab News.
“There are no leaders like him, all others are corrupt. None have so far proved good for Pakistan.”
Aneesa Siddiqui said their march would definitely go on and, God willing, it would conclude in Islamabad.
“We will not call off the march till the government doesn’t announce elections,” she said.
Khan has accused three people of devising the plan to assassinate him and named PM Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer.
The ex-premier has not provided evidence to support his claim.
The Pakistani military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), called the allegations “baseless and irresponsible.”
“The government of Pakistan has been requested to investigate the matter and initiate legal action against those responsible for defamation and false accusations against the institution and its officials without any evidence whatsoever,” the ISPR said in a statement Friday.
Sanaullah has also rejected the allegations, while PM Sharif condemned the attack on Khan and ordered an investigation.
