LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has warned that his party will paralyse the entire country if the government tries to put him under house arrest.

“If I am put under house arrest by police on the government’s order, the PTI will seal the entire country. We will hang those policemen who even touch peaceful PTI workers,” he said while addressing a convention of the party’s Lahore chapter on Sunday.

“We will surely march on Islamabad on August 14 because we believe that the 2013 general elections were massively rigged,” Zulifqar, a PTI activist, told Dawn as he waited for his party’s chief, along with other charged workers in Gulberg.

PTI spokesperson rules out talks with government

Mr Khan said that after removing the government through the long march his party would hold free, fair and transparent elections through an independent Election Commission.

About media reports that PTI members of the national and provincial assemblies had submitted their resignations to him, he said it was a small thing, adding that PTI workers were ready to do something beyond this and even die for him.

He said there was a difference between democracy and monarchy. “In a democratic system, rulers are accountable to people. And in a monarchy, one man or his family rules the state without being accountable to anyone. The Sharifs have become kings because they and their family members are holding key posts, including the one held by Mariam Nawaz.”

Mr Khan challenged his opponents to prove any corruption in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

He claimed that a caravan of youngsters with 50,000 motorcycles was ready to leave for Islamabad and expressed the hope that the number would grow on its way to the capital.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Abdul Aleem Khan and other PTI leaders also address the convention.

Ikram Junaidi adds from Islamabad: Demanding a complete re-election to correct the “massively rigged” general elections of 2013, PTI spokesperson Shireen Mazari ruled out any possibility of negotiations or a settlement with the PML-N government over the party’s upcoming ‘Azadi March’.

The PTI information secretary told a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday that the government did not have the mandate to rule because the elections were rigged. “This is why our party has been demanding re-elections instead of mid-term elections,” she said.

Ms Mazari said her party had given the government ample time to redress their grievances, but it seemed that the rulers were not willing to ensure democracy in the country. They do not have democracy within their own party and want to run the country through their own family members.

When asked to comment on a recent statement by Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, who called upon Nawaz Sharif to step down to avert a political crisis, Ms Mazari said the PML-N was not a political party but a family enterprise and would never agree to such a move because they wanted power for themselves. “Even if Nawaz resigns as prime minister, PTI will continue to demand a re-election,” she said.

“The Election Commission should have disposed of the petitions filed by candidates within four months of the elections, but as many as 14 months have passed without the major cases being settled,” she said.

“A number of politicians have been suggesting that parliament is the relevant forum to resolve all these issues, but unfortunately the government is not willing to take up these issues in parliament.”

To prove her point, Ms Mazari said PTI had tabled as many as six bills seeking reforms, but all of them were still pending.

“PTI tabled bills seeking the use of electronic voting machines in the next elections, greater accountability of returning officers, ratification of foreign agreements from parliament as well as an Islamabad local government bill and a bill regarding the audit of taxes paid by parliamentarians. But all these bills have been lost in the files,” she said.

Her sentiment was echoed by Asad Umar, the PTI MNA from Islamabad, who said the backlog of PTI-introduced bills showed that the government was not willing to resolve issues in a democratic manner.

“Now, the only option available is to take to the streets. PTI is not holding a fun fair, and the Azadi March in not being held in F-9 Park. Workers will not go back home until the issue is resolved. The protest will be peaceful and it is responsibility of the government to provide security,” Ms Mazari said, laying down her party’s agenda.

She said the government had not contacted PTI for negotiations and the impression that PTI had been negotiating with the government through back-channels was incorrect.

She said that all political parties had been invited to participate in the march, but PTI would seek support from only those parties and groups who wanted to bring about change through democratic means.

“All of our National Assembly members are ready to resign. Hundreds of thousands of people will participate in the march,” she said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2014