Imran Khan announces PTI rally in Islamabad next week for PM's resignation

Published April 21, 2017
PTI Chairman Imran Khan addresses a press conference outside the National Assembly. ─ DawnNews
PTI Chairman Imran Khan addresses a press conference outside the National Assembly. ─ DawnNews

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced his party's intention to hold a rally in Islamabad next Friday to "demand Nawaz Sharif's resignation".

Speaking to reporters outside the National Assembly, Khan posed the question: "How will the PML-N confront the public after the comments made in the Supreme Court judgement?"

"I asked the PML-N supporters, what were you distributing sweets for yesterday? You should have read the full judgement," he said.

"It has never happened in Pakistan's history before that such comments were passed against a sitting prime minister."

"All five judges have raised questions asked by the PTI," he said, adding that the apex court had rejected all defences presented by the PM's counsel.

"Resign while you are being investigated," he urged the premier. "This is not an unusual demand."

Khan also questioned if it was possible for heads of institutions like the National Accountability Bureau to investigate the prime minister while he remained in power.

"If these institutions had been working, they would have stopped corruption already," he asserted.

Khan's announcement came a day after the Supreme Court's decision on the Panamagate case said it would constitute a Joint Investigation Team to probe the Sharif family's wealth.

What was initially hailed as a win by the PML-N later became an embarrassment for the party as its opposition touted the 2:3 split verdict — neither a clean chit, nor a disqualification — with a strongly-worded dissenting note by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa as an indication that the court had been unable to find Nawaz Sharif innocent.

Read more: Supreme Court gives reprieve to Sharif, but no clean chit

Opinion

Fifty years later

Fifty years later

The nation is stuck in a repetitive cycle: striving for fair and timely polls, basic rights, and civilian empowerment.

Editorial

Healing old wounds
09 Dec, 2023

Healing old wounds

IN a development that will surely shine a spotlight on one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s democracy, the...
New Danish law
09 Dec, 2023

New Danish law

THE public defilement of Islamic sanctities — mainly by Islamophobic provocateurs in the West — serves no...
Elected set-up’s job
09 Dec, 2023

Elected set-up’s job

Backed by a powerful establishment, the interim government has done a fairly good job at executing IMF-mandated policies.
Privatising SOEs
Updated 08 Dec, 2023

Privatising SOEs

WHY does the government want to demolish the historic Roosevelt Hotel in New York — one of the eight properties ...
Filing returns
08 Dec, 2023

Filing returns

THE grim realities of Pakistan’s flailing efforts to ensure tax compliance often present themselves as farce....
Cost of negligence
08 Dec, 2023

Cost of negligence

ONCE again, Karachi has witnessed a tragic fire, this time engulfing a six-storey commercial-cum-residential ...