PESHAWAR, March 10: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan said here on Sunday that 80,000 elected representatives of the party would take oath at what he called the party’s largest-ever public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore on March 23.

Kick-starting his formal election campaign, Mr Khan told a public gathering in Peshawar’s Ring Road area that the PTI would unveil at the Lahore meeting its manifesto which would offer ways of coping with the crisis the country was facing and present a glimpse of a new Pakistan the people would be proud of.

He said that under a programme for change, one million youths of the PTI would be assigned the task of spreading the message of change and preventing poll rigging.

“Change is finally coming after 16 years of PTI’s struggle. We have become the only party in Pakistan which has held intra-party polls,” he said, adding that unlike the PML-N which could be ruled only by a person belonging to the ‘Sharif’ family, poor people had been elected in the PTI’s elections at local and district levels.

“The N-League, PPP and others are ‘family parties’ ruled by unelected people, whereas in the PTI workers elect their leader. They can throw me out. They run the party and are part of the campaign against corruption and for building a new Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Khan condemned the killing of Shias and said that his was the only party capable of ending the sectarian divide and curbing violence.

He advised the enthusiastic youths who were dancing and Pashto and Urdu songs were being played to be more active politically because the general election was round the corner and the party was determined to sweep it with an unprecedented margin.

The PTI chief said political parties were now talking about dialogue with the Taliban. “This has vindicated our stated policy of negotiations with the Taliban, instead of deploying armed forces in Waziristan and other areas. For the past eight years we have been calling for a political solution to the problem of militancy. The armed campaign has proved fruitless and caused more damage than good,” he added.

He said it was surprising that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was now supporting talks with the Taliban although until only a few months ago he had termed PTI’s long march to Waziristan a ploy of the Jewish lobby.

“Where were you, Maulana Sahib, over the past five years? Why are you holding a peace conference now? Were you not aware of the seriousness of the situation and importance of talks with the Taliban instead of using arms against them? What did you do when you were part of the government,” he asked.