Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan to lead protest march to capital to call for early elections

Imran Khan says march meant to call on people to decide their own future

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has announced that his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), will lead a march on 28 October from Lahore city to capital Islamabad to call for early national elections.

The march will be the ousted prime minister’s second this year since he was sent packing from the top job through a vote of no-confidence in April.

“This is our march for haqeeqi azaadi [actual freedom] and it has no timeframe. We will reach Islamabad from the GT Road and the nation will come to Islamabad from across Pakistan,” Mr Khan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“I am predicting this will be the biggest sea of people in the history of the country,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

“This is something way beyond politics, it is a war for freedom from these thieves that have been imposed over us. This jihad will decide where the country will go.”

Mr Khan said the march was meant to call on the people of the country to decide their own future.

“The decision of who will head the country belongs to the public,” he said.

“We want that the people make the decision. Today, I am appealing to the entire nation that you will have to decide... do we want to go on this way of becoming a free country or serve these thieves?” he asked, in a reference to the current dispensation.

Mr Khan’s decision to launch the march comes days after the Islamabad high court rejected his request to set aside an order from the country’s election commission that barred him from contesting elections.

On Friday, the commission found Mr Khan illegally sold state gifts and concealed assets as premier. The ruling disqualified Mr Khan under Pakistani law from holding public office for five years.

He also lost his seat in parliament as a result.

Mr Khan’s supporters briefly clashed with the police on Friday outside Islamabad.

In May, violent clashes were seen at a similar march called by Mr Khan, with police resorting to teargas and baton charge to disperse his supporters in several cities.

Later, the former prime minister urged his supporters to disperse peacefully and wait for his call for a march to Islamabad.