THOUSANDS of people rallied in Lahore, Pakistan, on Saturday (21/9) to demand the immediate release of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held its first major rally in Lahore since the Feb. 8 general election.
The party won dozens of seats in Punjab province. The local government had allowed the rally to be held for three hours after the Lahore High Court ordered it on Friday (20/9).
The ruling party in the province is the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, who is chief minister. PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar said the government should immediately release Khan as Pakistan’s economic and political instability was spiraling out of control.
“I warn the government to release Khan because the situation is now out of control and we will mobilize people on the streets to protest,” he said, as reported by Anadolu, Monday (23/9).
He criticized the government for not allowing his party to freely demonstrate and issuing a certificate of no objection (SKKB) after a court order.
This is the PTI’s second show of strength this month after it held a major rally in Islamabad on September 8 for the first time since May 2023 as the government has repeatedly refused to allow the party to hold public meetings in the capital despite court orders.
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Salman Akram Raja, PTI secretary general and a prominent lawyer, accused Pakistan’s Election Commission of rigging the February 8 elections and snatching victory from the PTI.
“The current government has no public mandate and we will not allow it to make any constitutional amendments and form a constitutional court to fit the current biased chief justice,” the king told his supporters.
He claimed the government had moved a constitutional amendment to ban the PTI and send Khan to a military court for trial. Protesters shouted slogans including, “Long live Imran Khan,” “Free Imran Khan” and “Rigged elections are unacceptable.”
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The PTI claims to have won two-thirds of the constituencies in the election. The Election Commission of Pakistan has dismissed the allegations. Raja announced that he would soon launch nationwide protests to pressure the government to release Khan.
Khan, 72, is currently in jail in the northeastern garrison city of Rawalpindi, seeking bail in cases ranging from corruption to terrorism. He denies the charges. The court has set aside two of his convictions and suspended a third.
The former cricket star was ousted in a no-confidence motion in April 2022. (I-2)
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