KARACHI: Thousands of people rallied across Pakistan on Sunday night to protest the ouster of Imran Khan after he lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly which his party described as part of an elaborate foreign conspiracy to bring down his administration.
Earlier in the day, the former prime minister told people it was time to launch another “freedom struggle” against foreign-sponsored “regime change” in the country, adding only the people of Pakistan could have defended its sovereignty and democracy. As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers and supporters gathered in different cities, he applauded the “amazing outpouring of support” in a Twitter post.
Khan lost majority in the lower house of parliament in recent weeks after defections by dozens of his party’s lawmakers and abandonment by his coalition partners. Subsequently, he became the first prime minister in the country who could not survive the no-confidence resolution after some of his close aides tried to delay the vote in the National Assembly as much as possible.
“Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported [government] led by crooks,” Khan said while sharing a video of his supporters in Lahore on Twitter which was shared by his followers.
Tens of thousands of people also gathered near Karachi’s Millennium Mall in an unprecedented show of power by the PTI party which had won a majority of seats from the city during the last general elections.
More recently, however, analysts believed Khan’s popularity had dwindled, though the number of participants in the protest demonstration in Karachi stunned both the organizers and the PTI rivals.
The rally was addressed by Governor Sindh Imran Ismail and a PTI provincial leader Haleem Adil Sheikh along with others for several hours. Most of them said that Khan’s was a result of an international conspiracy since he was trying to pursue an independent foreign policy and raised his voice for the Muslim world.
The crowd chanted anti-American and anti-opposition slogans in response.
In Islamabad, former federal ministers Asad Umar, Murad Saeed and Shibli Faraz led a rally at the capital’s F-9 Park where thousands, including women and children, gathered in response to Khan’s call. The women were holding placards that read: “Imported government is not acceptable.”
A senior PTI leader in the province of Punjab, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, also addressed a huge rally at the Liberty Market roundabout.
Similar demonstration was also organized in Rawalpindi which was addressed by former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed near Lal Haveli.
PTI workers and supporter came out in large numbers in various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has remained a major stronghold for the political party for nearly a decade. Apart from protests in Peshawar, Noshehra, Malakand and Mardan, Pakistanis living abroad also came out in Khan’s support in Dubai, London and other cities of the world.
Khan did not participate or address any of the rallies in Pakistan, though he thanked the protesters in a social media post for supporting him.
“Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail,” he wrote while making a reference to a local commander who betrayed an 18th century Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan by siding with the British. “Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this.”
The former Pakistani prime minister and his party have accused the opposition leaders of plundering the country, saying that they have corruption references pending against them.
The opposition has always denied these allegations while claiming that the accountability drive launched by Khan’s administration was politically motivated.
