Gulf Times

Will fight till ‘last drop of blood’: Khan

■ Ex-PM announces resignatio­ns from provincial assemblies to force elections 3 weeks after returning from bid on life

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Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan told tens of thousands of supporters yesterday he would fight with his “last drop of blood” in a first public address since being shot in an assassinat­ion attempt earlier this month.

The shooting was the latest twist in months of political turmoil that began in April when Khan was ousted by a vote of no confidence in parliament.

“I have seen death from up close,” said Khan, who hobbled to the stage with a walking frame to speak to supporters from a seat behind a panel of bulletproo­f glass.

“I’m more worried about the freedom of Pakistan than my life,” he told the crowd. “I will fight for this country until my last drop of blood.”

In a surprise announceme­nt, Khan also declared his party had decided not to remain part of the current “corrupt political system” and will instead resign from all the assemblies.

“We will not be part of this system. We have decided to quit all the assemblies and get out of this corrupt system,” he thundered.

His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is in power in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhw­a, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The PTI has already quit the National Assembly — lower house of Pakistan’s bicameral legislatur­e.

Yesterday’s rally was the climax of a so-called “long march” by PTI to press the government to call a snap election before parliament’s term expires in October next year.

The rally was squeezed onto a motorway in Rawalpindi, a garrison city neighbouri­ng the capital Islamabad and home to the headquarte­rs of the country’s powerful military.

“I have decided not to go to Islamabad because I know there will be havoc and the loss will be to the country,” Khan told the crowd.

Tight security was in place for Khan’s appearance. A police official told local television channel Geo TV that a total of 10,000 personnel had been deployed for the event, with snipers positioned at various points for his security.

Saghir Ahmed, a 32-year-old tailor, was among thousands arriving in the long build-up to Khan’s speech atop a platform draped with banners depicting a clenched fist breaking shackles.

Having shut his shop to attend, Ahmed said Pakistan’s dire economic situation — with galloping inflation and a nosediving rupee — has made life “unbearable”.

“We hope Khan will introduce some reforms and the situation will improve,” he told AFP.

Khan attracts cultish devotion from supporters, but yesterday made his speech hundreds of metres from the bulk of the crowd of around 25,00030,000, separated by coils of barbed wire and a buffer of police officers.

In the November 3 assassinat­ion attempt, a gunman opened fire from close range as Khan’s open-top container truck made its way through a crowded street. Buildings overlookin­g the site of the rally were searched overnight, a police official told AFP, while snipers were perched on rooftops surveying the mostly male supporters whipping red and green flags back and forth.

Khan himself was surrounded by a crush of bodyguards at all times, while mobile phone signals were jammed in the vicinity.

Authoritie­s threw a ring of steel around Islamabad to prevent his supporters from marching on government buildings, with thousands of security personnel deployed and roads blocked by shipping containers.

Khan-led protests in May spiralled into 24 hours of chaos, with the capital blockaded and running clashes across Pakistan between police and protesters.

Khan told yesterday’s rally that he would not be calling on supporters to enter the capital.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah — who Khan accuses of being involved in the assassinat­ion plot — issued a “red alert” Friday, warning of security threats to the rally.

He listed Pakistan’s Taliban and Al Qaeda among the extremist groups that could harm Khan.

The government says the assassinat­ion attempt was the work of a lone wolf now in custody, with police leaking a “confession” video by the junkshop owner saying he acted because Khan was against Islam. But Khan said he has long warned that the government would blame a religious fanatic for any attempt to kill him.

Without offering evidence, Khan has named Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, interior minister Sanaullah, and a senior military officer of being the architects of the assassinat­ion attempt — charges they have all dismissed as lies.

Yesterday’s rally took place two days after the government named a former spymaster as the next military chief.

General Syed Asim Munir’s appointmen­t ended months of speculatio­n over a position long considered the real power in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation of 220mn people.

Munir served as chief of the Inter-Services Intelligen­ce agency under Khan, but his stint ended after just eight months following a reported falling out.

Pakistan’s military, the world’s sixth-largest, is hugely influentia­l in the country and has staged at least three coups since independen­ce in 1947, ruling for more than three decades.

 ?? ?? Former prime minister Imran Khan waves to the crowd in Rawalpindi yesterday whilst sitting on the stage as he recuperate­s from bullet injuries sustained in an assassinat­ion attempt on his life in Wazirabad early this month.
Former prime minister Imran Khan waves to the crowd in Rawalpindi yesterday whilst sitting on the stage as he recuperate­s from bullet injuries sustained in an assassinat­ion attempt on his life in Wazirabad early this month.
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