Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s parliamentary party has decided to launch a nationwide movement from August 5, demanding the release of party founder Imran Khan and calling for other demands to be met. The date will mark three years since the former prime minister’s imprisonment.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by interim party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) House in Islamabad, where PTI lawmakers also discussed matters related to the party’s parliamentary affairs.
PTI General Secretary Salman Akram Raja told a private media outlet that the meeting finalised August 5 as the launch date for the movement, which will include public meetings, demonstrations and a long march.
He said: “It was also decided that Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas’s opinions will be sought for finalising the protest plans and other activities”.
Addressing a press conference, Gohar said that the meeting also reviewed the health of the former prime minister and his wife Bushra Bibi. He noted that August 5 would complete three years of the PTI founder’s imprisonment and mentioned that rallies would be held nationwide to mark the occasion.
He maintained that Imran Khan was being denied justice by the courts and said that the oppression and injustice in the country needed to end.
In a separate development, PTI dismissed media reports claiming the party had agreed to end its boycott of parliamentary standing committees.
PTI’s Chief Whip in the National Assembly, Malik Amir, said that the party’s position on the boycott had not changed and that PTI would continue to stand by what he called its “principled position.”
He rejected claims that the National Assembly Secretariat had been informed of any decision to end the boycott, calling such reports inaccurate. He noted that the boycott had been initiated on Imran Khan’s instructions and said that any decision to continue or end it would be taken only after consultation with him.
