LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan stated here on Thursday that his party’s ‘Azadi March’ would not be a 20-20 match but a series of Test matches.

“Nobody should misunderstand that the PTI is going to hold a simple protest public gathering in Islamabad,” he warned.

Speaking after the inauguration of his party’s Lahore office on Thursday, Mr Khan said the ‘Naya Pakistan’ would only be created after coming out on roads as was the case of winning the cause of independent judiciary. “The Azadi March (from Lahore) will be a final battle to root out the corrupt and bring in a fair system in the country,” he said.

The PTI chief referred to PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s reply to a media person’s question whether the nuclear bombs could be used in trying times – “The nuclear bombs are not to be fired on Shab-i-Bara’at”.

Mr Khan hinted that in his speech in Islamabad he would expose the whole team that had fixed the general election match.

He said his party had been looking for justice against the wrongs done in last year’s general elections, but all its efforts went in vain only because of the corrupt system in the country.

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He said PTI candidate Hamid Zaman had spent Rs6 million to identify the rigging, but he did not get justice despite having presented evidences of rigging.

Mr Khan said his party’s secretary general Jahangir Tareen had also spent Rs20m, but the authorities concerned did not allow recounting of votes in his constituency.

He said National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had been hiding behind a stay order for nine months against rigging charges in NA-122, but the vote recount in a few polling stations in PP-147, which fell under his constituency, would continue to serve as a litmus test of transparency of the elections.

“The PTI had contested the elections in an honest manner against those who did not know what honesty is. They have never played with neutral umpires.”

He said the Azadi March would not be only against the rigging in general elections but the whole ‘rotten’ system that had been continuing to push the masses to the wall. Under the existing corrupt election system, he said, honest candidates could never defeat those coming to power through backdoors.

The PTI chief did not say a word about the Rs20 billion libel notice served on him by former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2014