ISLAMABAD: While claiming that all the arrangements for his party’s long march were in their final stages, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry on Monday said it will be Pakistan’s defeat if people did not come out on former prime minister Imran Khan’s call for protest.

He alleged that for the last six months, an environment that was worse than martial law had been created, and the economy had collapsed.

While speaking to the media outside the Banigala residence of PTI chief Imran Khan, the former minister said the ‘Azadi March’ will herald true independence in Pakistan and if people did not respond to the appeal of Mr Khan, it would be the country’s defeat.

He hoped a large number of people would participate in the PTI’s long march and the party’s legislators and ticket-holders had been tasked with gathering the masses.

About the Islamabad High Court’s dismissal of show-cause notice against his party chief Imran Khan, the former information minister said the court had announced a good decision, adding the PTI did not want any conflict with the institutions. He claimed the country was progressing during the PTI government, but had now been suffering for the last six months.

He said PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had got her passport back and now she would go to London to meet her father in the Avenfield apartments and while coming out of the building she’d say she didn’t own them.

“Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is facing allegations of money laundering, fled from the country in the aircraft of the prime minister, and now returned in the same aircraft with the PM. This is nothing but a slap in the face of the justice system,” he commented.

Mr Chaudhry said an important case regarding the accountability law amendments was filed in the Supreme Court, and urged the apex court to take action over it.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2022