Karachi: Imran Khan, who took a break from a sit-in in the Pakistani capital on Sunday to address a public rally here, warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that his protest would last until he resigned.
Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician who launched a campaign against Prime Minister Sharif last August in front of the Pakistani parliament, expanded his campaign and vowed to uproot the government, which, he claimed, came to power after rigged elections.
“First of all, your fundamental right is to cast a vote to bring your favourite leader into power,” Khan told supporters. “But unfortunately no election in Pakistan was held in a transparent way except the 1970 elections.”
“No one was held accountable for the rigged elections so far but until you do not give us justice this campaign will not end,” Khan said addressing Sharif.
He said that he came to Karachi to bring the nation together. He said that the nation’s tyrannical forces were divided on an ethnic basis.
“I have come here to make you all one nation,” Khan said addressing the ethnic Mohajir, Sindhi, Pakhtoons, Punjabis and Baluchis.
The rally were chanting slogans “go Nawaz go,” in the backdrop during his address.
“I will make a new Pakistan where a common Pakistani and the minorities would be respected,” he added.
Khan vowed to transform Pakistan into a nation that would earn respect in the world and that people would want to visit.
Cricket legend, Javed Miandad, also stood beside Khan.
The PTI chief also addressed ethnic Sindhis telling them that they were being cheated in the name of the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. “His name is being used to befool you but I am coming down to get you rid of your exploitation.”
He also vowed to end targeted killings in Karachi, which could be possible by bringing reforms in the police department.
“I will fight with all the vices and I want you to stand by me in this fierce struggle,” he told supporters.
The address culminated in a massive fireworks display and music.
A large number of PTI workers and supporters, waving the tri-coloured party flags, gathered along the periphery of the masuoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the nation.
Earlier, the party president Shah Mahmoud Qureshi said in his address that Karachi residents cast more than 800,000 votes in the previous elections that were allegedly rigged and for which PTI was staging the sit-in in Islamabad entering into its 40th day.
Qureshi said that now Karachi had woken up and it seemed that the time of the present government was over. Criticising the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of which Shah remained a senior leader before defecting, he said that with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the leaders of scholastic stature would stand but now property dealers were the cronies of Asif Ali Zardar, who is heading the party.
