Imran Rallies Support For Islamabad ‘Long March’

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced that his party’s planned anti-government long march to Islamabad would begin between May 25 and 29. He said his party had one demand: announcement of the date of the general election after dissolving assemblies. “It is not about politics anymore… What we’re witnessing is a revolution,” he told a public gathering in Multan. This comes against the backdrop of the election commission disqualifying 25 dissident lawmakers of Imran Khan’s party who had voted for Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, son of PM Shehbaz Sharif. Imran said he had spent eight days of his life in a prison where he noticed that criminals involved in small crimes were imprisoned. “When I reached the (National) Assembly, I saw the biggest thieves there. A nation who makes the biggest thieves their chief ministers and prime ministers does not have a future.” He said Shehbaz and his son Hamza were about to be convicted but instead one became prime minister and the other chief minister. “I am here to prepare you all. If we don’t take to the streets now, we will be slaves of the U.S. and these thieves.” He sought to remind people of the economic distress Pakistan was in. “Inflation will rise because of the spike in the dollar rate. All edible items that are being imported will become expensive. They will take us to the point of what Sri Lanka is facing today.” Claiming mass support to his scheduled march, Imran said the “mafia that ruled us for 30 years, is about to be buried”.