 "Imran Khan")
Ousted prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on Thursday gave a six-day deadline to the Shehbaz Sharif government for dissolving provincial assemblies and announcing fresh general elections, warning that if the "imported government" failed to do so, he would return to the capital with the "entire nation".
Addressing a rally of thousands of protesters of the Azadi March' at Jinnah Avenue here on Thursday morning, Khan lashed out at the government for using tactics like raids and arrests to stop his party's march, even as he thanked the Supreme Court (SC) for taking notice of the matter.
"Government has tried every method to crush our Azadi March, they used teargas on peaceful protest, our homes were raided and privacy of the homes were violated, however, I have seen the nation free itself of fear of slavery, he said.
"My message for the imported government is to dissolve assemblies and announce elections, otherwise, I will come back again to Islamabad after six days, he was quoted as saying by the Geo News.
Noting that there was a "huge responsibility" on the Supreme Court judges, Khan asked where in a democracy peaceful protests were not allowed and demonstrators had to face tear-gas shelling, police raids and arrests.
"I had decided that I will sit here until the government dissolves assemblies and announces elections, but of what I have seen in the past 24 hours, they (govt) are taking the nation towards anarchy," he said, claiming that the government was also trying to create a divide between the nation and police.
Khan said the government would be happy if he staged a sit-in in Islamabad as it would lead to clashes between the people and police and the army, the Dawn newspaper reported.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
