ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Friday urged people to socially boycott Nawaz Sharif for being “corrupt” and announced the launching of a countrywide campaign to force the prime minister to step down.

Speaking at a big rally at the Parade Ground here on Friday, he also challenged the prime minister and his brother Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take him to court over his claim that the Sharifs had offered to pay him Rs10 billion in bribe.

It was the first show of street power by the PTI after the Supreme Court’s April 20 judgement in the Panama Papers case.

Vows to disclose in court name of middleman who offered Rs10bn bribe

“Nawaz Sharif has lost the moral authority to rule. Therefore, I ask you to socially boycott him in the fields, schools and universities. If you are doctors or in other professions you should raise only one slogan, and that is ‘go Nawaz, go’,” he said.

The PTI chief said his party would hold public meetings across the country under a mass mobilisation campaign.

During the rally many video and audio clips were run that were meant to corroborate Mr Khan’s claim that the prime minister could no longer be considered an honest and sagacious leader. “I am going to Karachi the day after tomorrow, after which our public meeting will be held in Nowshera. On May 7, I will go to Sialkot. I will visit every corner of the country to achieve just one goal — the resignation of Nawaz Sharif,” he said.

Mr Khan urged the people to come out of their homes in large numbers to rid the country of Nawaz Sharif as well as Asif Ali Zardari because “they are both corrupt”.

He said that in its verdict the Supreme Court had said the country’s institutions that had been set up to make the leaders accountable for their deeds had failed to deli­ver. Now the people should force the institutions to mend their ways.

The PTI chief said he would disclose the name of the person who had conveyed the Sharifs’ Rs10bn bribe offer to him if he was taken to court. “Take me to court and I will reveal the identity of the individual.

“The ‘messenger’ who brought the offer was offered Rs2bn for convincing me to accept it.”

Mr Khan added: “If I name the person, they will conspire against him and destroy his business.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017