- Says will name person behind 10 bln bribe offer if govt moves to court
- Says Jindal has disclosed that Nawaz Sharif wants to make friendship with India but Army does not
ISLAMABAD, April 28: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) kicked off round one of its fresh protest drive for the prime minister’s resignation, this time in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case, with a massive rally at Islamabad’s Parade Ground on Friday evening.
The charged participants of the rally kept chanting “Go Nawaz Go”, waiting for PTI chief Imran Khan to come to the stage and address the rally. A giant screen has been put up on the stage on which Khan is expected to show a documentary on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family’s offshore assets. The PTI chief and leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Jahangir Tareen and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak as well as Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed had reached the venue by the time this report was filed.
“The whole nation is looking up to Imran Khan now,” Rasheed told reporters. “Two of the five Supreme Court judges who heard the Panama Papers case have observed that Nawaz Sharif is neither saadiq, nor ameen,” he added. The other judges too have given 60 days to him to prove his innocence. The prime minister is a security threat to the nation now and has to go.”
Parade ground lits up with the glimmering phone lights as the massive crowd put up their phones and chant slogans.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the success of the rally had proved that the PTI’s efforts had not gone in vain.
“Many political pundits had advised us to not approach the court, but the Supreme Court’s verdict has proved that we had made the right move by doing so,” he added.
Political parties have escalated their campaign against the ruling PML-N following the Panamagate verdict on April 20 which ruled that the PM and his sons, Hasan and Hussain will have to appear before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to record their statements.
The apex court, however, did not disqualify the PM, citing absence of adequate evidence in the case. The JIT has been given two months to complete its probe into the case.
On Wednesday, civilian and military agencies submitted to the apex court the names of the candidates who would represent them in the JIT. On April 25, the PTI chairman created a stir when he said the government had offered him Rs10 billion to stay silent on the Panamagate case. The remarks have prompted calls from the opposition to reveal the names of those who made the offer.
In the summer of 2014, Khan had led a previous mass protest lasted four months, allying himself with cleric Tahirul Qadri for a sit-in in front of the parliament calling for the government to resign over election rigging allegations.
Hundreds of protesters had briefly seized the state broadcaster Pakistan Television Corporation’s (PTV) headquarters. Transmissions of PTV were cut after protesters armed with clubs stormed the building in Islamabad’s high-security “red zone”, before being removed by security forces after around half an hour.
On Sajjan Jindal, Imran Khan said that Sajjan Jindal has on a tweet disclosed that Nawaz Sharif wants to make friendship with India but Pakistan Army does not want this. – Agencies
