MULTAN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday called for a probe into the Multan tragedy to ascertain who had got the gates closed and who had got them locked.
Addressing a press conference in Multan, Imran said that all gates of Qasim Bagh stadium should have been opened at the end of the rally and demanded that a fair probe be conducted "by an unbiased judge' into the incident.
He said arrangements at the stadium were inadequate and people had also fallen unconscious due to lack of drinking water.
At least seven people were killed and several others were wounded on Friday when a stampede broke out at the venue of the PTI rally in Multan, when a large number of people had tried to use an exit gate in one go after PTI Chairman Imran Khan left the venue.
The PTI chairperson had blamed the Punjab government and the Multan administration for the tragedy while most officials of Multan police have held the party responsible.
Speaking to reporters today, Imran said he would personally manage the stage affairs at all venues of his party's upcoming rallies and added that matters would be settled with Sargodha's local administration for holding the next PTI rally in that city in order to avoid any untoward incident.
The PTI chairman also met with heirs of the stampede tragedy victims and announced a sum of Rs800,000 as compensation for each deceased.
Imran said he was sorry to see the state of the victims’ families and added that although PTI wanted to celebrate today, it had decided to mourn following the incident.
The party chief also congratulated Malala Yousafzai for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, saying she was a campaigner for education and education was a key element in PTI's manifesto.
He said change could not take place without people power and added that if he had to come into power through help from the establishment, that could have been done long ago. He further said that those who have come into power via the establishment's support have always had to work according to the establishment's will.
Members of PTI's Multan chapter had boycotted their party chairman's press conference. Ijaz Hussain Janjua, PTI's Multan district president, had said that the district level office-bearers of the party had not been summoned for the press conference.
