Imran Khan steps up pressure on PM Sharif

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan’s Independence Day approaches on August 14, calls for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down are getting stronger with the opposition being led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

While most of Pakistan’s political parties in the parliament have shown support for Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and his political allies have called for a long march on the streets of Islamabad on August 14. Khan says that there will be a “revolution in the streets” that will force Sharif to resign.

To raise the stakes higher, on Saturday Imran Khan asked for advance resignations of his party’s MP’s before an upcoming National Assembly session on August 4.

The PTI chief fears that his MPs will be bought over by Sharif ahead of the protest march. He also wants to use the resignations as a final political challenge to the Sharif government. On August 13 — a day before PTI’s ‘Azadi’ march on Independence Day — Imran will present the resignations to the speaker, a spokesman of the party said.

Khan is demanding a complete audit of votes of the May 2013 general elections. He alleges that wide spread rigging led to the election of Nawaz Sharif ’s PML-N party to power. Former foreign minister and now PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi has demanded mid-term polls, something that Sharif and other parties reject.

The government has, however, played down prospects of a show down. Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif said no long march or protest could create hurdles in the journey towards prosperity.