ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan called on supporters on Saturday to stay peaceful, a day after they held a violent protest against several ruling party lawmakers who withdrew their support for the PM in the face of a no-confidence vote against him.
Angry supporters of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday stormed the Sindh House building in Islamabad, which was sheltering the dissenting PTI members. Sindh House is an official building in Islamabad dedicated to the government of southern Sindh province, which is ruled by the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
PTI supporters have accused the PPP of buying the loyalty of the PTI dissenters who withdrew their support for Khan on Thursday, ahead of the no-trust vote that could come as soon as this month. The opposition — which blames Khan for mismanaging the country, economy and foreign policy — has denied the claims.
“It is your right to protest peacefully in a democracy,” Khan said during the groundbreaking ceremony of a road project in Rawalpindi city. “But please, you should not clash with anyone.”
Video clips that went viral on social media showed PTI supporters carrying lotas, or round water pots used to refer to turncoats, and shouting slogans against dissident lawmakers during Friday's rally.
In one of the clips, they were seen throwing the pots at the Sindh House gate and breaking it open. The video showed a contingent of police officers trying to stop the protesters from doing further damage.
“If someone attains your vote and then sells it for money to (another party), then it is not only your right, it is your obligation to protest peacefully against it," Khan said, as he repeated his allegations from a rally last week, when he said that Sindh House had become a “hub of horse-trading,” and that dissenters had been bribed to vote against him.
He added that most of the dissenters would return to the PTI's fold "after witnessing the public’s pressure."
