ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Thursday gave a six-day ultimatum to the government to dissolve assemblies and announce new elections; otherwise, he would come back again to Islamabad after six days with ‘entire nation’. The PTI’s marchers started dispersing in the federal capital amid deployment of the army.
Addressing protesters at Islamabad’s Jinnah Avenue, Khan warned that the government was pushing the country towards anarchy, adding he would gather two million people in the federal capital for his cause. He urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the PTI workers’ arrests and shelling on party activists. Khan said he had reached Islamabad after 30 hours of travelling from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said that the government tried every method to crush our march, it used teargas on peaceful protest, raided their homes and violated privacy of the homes while three PTI workers lost their lives in Karachi and two workers fell off Ravi Bridge. He said: “You have failed to run the government, you are not here to run the government but just to shutter the corruption cases against you.”
The situation in the twin cities began to return to normal after the marchers began dispersing from Islamabad’s Blue Area. The administration also started removing obstacles to re-open the Murree and other roads. The PTI also ended its sit-in at Numaish Chowrangi in Karachi today. PTI was observing sit-in at M.A Jinnah Road from yesterday’s evening against the torture over PTI workers by the government enroute to Islamabad from Peshawar.
The traffic police said M.A Jinnah Road has been opened for the traffic after the end of the sit-in. As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan’s caravan finally reached Islamabad as a part of his party’s ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’, the federal government authorized deployment of army in the capital’s red zone to “protect important government buildings”.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah tweeted a notification saying the government was “pleased to authorize the deployment” of the army in Red Zone under Article 245 of the Constitution. Among the buildings that will be protected are the Supreme Court, Parliament House, Prime Minister House, Presidency, Pakistan Secretariat and Diplomatic enclaves,” the notification states.