LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has instructed the party’s core committee and provincial leaders to continue holding protest demonstrations and sit-ins across the country till the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “even if I get arrested”.

This was stated by PTI Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid while talking to Dawn after holding a demonstration and sit-in in front of Governor House to protest police highhandedness against peaceful protesters in Islamabad on Monday. She said protests and sit-ins had started across Punjab.

Answering a question about PTI President Javed Hashmi’s allegations that Imran Khan was acting on the army’s instructions, she said Mr Hashmi was telling a white lie and added that Mr Khan used to admonish Hashmi on such criticism.

“Hashmi had earlier gone to Multan after Imran Khan had reprimanded him for making a point that he (Imran Khan) was acting on the army’s advice,” she claimed. A PTI committee, however, had brought him back before the beginning of the Azadi March.

“Khan is not a person that acts on the advice of hidden hands,” she added.

Ms Rashid said Mr Khan had met the Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s delegation on the last day on the insistence of the core committee. She said Mr Khan and the party as a whole strongly condemned PAT’s workers’ attack on the Pakistan Television headquarters in Islamabad.

Earlier, speaking to the protesters outside the Governor House, Dr Yasmin Rashid said the rulers had crossed all the limits of cruelty towards peaceful protesters. She said the PML-N government was target killing innocent people in Islamabad through its “Gullu Butts” dispatched from Punjab. She said the rulers were devoid of feelings of humanity and had no right to rule the masses.

She said the PML-N could no more run the government with the help of Gullu Butts and it would soon be held accountable for excesses committed against the masses. She stressed the PTI workers and supporters should continue protesting to earn the real independence.

The PTI workers were also addressed by different MPAs and party office-bearers. They were holding party flags, chanting slogans against the Sharifs, calling upon them to quit.

Later, the protesters moved to participate in the regular sit-in at Liberty Chowk. The protest at Lalik Chowk in DHA also continued.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2014