As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s long march entered its sixth day, party leader Fawad Chaudhry told the government that their date of arrival in Islamabad will keep changing ‘to keep the government guessing’. He was addressing a press conference in Gujranwala.
The march began on Friday and has progressed slowly amid a barrage of addresses by PTI leaders and press conferences from the federal government, with PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif even tweeting that ex-PM Imran Khan had failed to gather even 2,000 people.
Fawad Chaudhry dismissed the criticism of the march’s pace, adding that the aim was maximum mobilization. “The participants will tell their children that they were part of something great,” Fawad said, drawing a comparison to the Pakistan movement. He also said that everyone dissatisfied with Pakistan’s current state of affairs should become part of the march.
Named the ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’, PTI Chief Imran Khan’s latest campaign has been repeatedly called a ‘revolution’ by party members. Chairman Imran Khan has said that the aim is to force the Shahbaz Sharif-led federal government to call early elections.
Fawad said that the government wants to delay elections until the nation’s stolen wealth was successfully stashed beyond the scope of investigation and recovery. He added that this march’s objective had gone beyond just getting the government for the PTI but had turned into a matter of saving the country.
PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz addressed a press conference in London, where she labelled the march as a movement by Imran Khan to get an army chief of his own liking appointed. In response Fawad simply said that Maryam Nawaz should come back and face the PTI chief in elections now that her name had been cleared by the courts.
He also requested the National Assembly speaker to accept the remaining resignations from the PTI. “Imran Khan will contest from all 120 seats,” he said.