Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan has said that he was certain that there would be firing during his party’s long march held last week, adding that the participants of the march had weapons. He went on to say that he decided to call off the march fearing violence, as the arrests of PTI workers and leaders had caused widespread anger among the protestors.
Earlier, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had claimed that PTI workers were planning to bring weapons to the long march. Lahore police had also claimed, ahead of the long march, that it recovered weapons from vehicles of two PTI leaders.
On Wednesday, the former prime minister had abruptly called off his planned sit-in the capital, after reaching Islamabad from Peshawar. Party workers who had been fighting policemen and braving shelling in anticipation of a sit-in in Islamabad were disappointed when Khan never reached D-chowk despite earlier announcing that he would.
The Supreme Court had asked the party to hold its event at H-9 and not D-chowk, but Imran kept vowing to reach D-chowk — in defiance of the SC order. While he did not eventually go to D-chowk and ended the long march, the federal government sought contempt proceedings against Imran Khan for allegedly violating the SC directives. The apex court however rejected the government’s petition and said that Imran Khan may not have been duly informed about the court’s order.
Talking to anchor Moeed Pirzada on his show, Imran Khan said that his party now seeks clarity from the Supreme Court over their right to protest.
While calling off the long march, Imran Khan had vowed to return to the capital after six days if the government did not announce election date. However, in a later press conference on Saturday, he said that he would announce the date for the next long march after completion of the six-day ultimatum, as opposed to holding the long march after six days.
After his confession, will a SC clearly leaning towards him to the point of being almost partisan, still accept his assurances? I hope better sense prevails, his false assurances are rejected and a national disaster in the making, avoided.