Karachi, April 11 (Dawn) – The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday took out rallies in several cities of the country to protest against the ouster of former prime minister and party chairman Imran Khan through a successful vote of no-confidence the previous night.
Karachi, Peshawar, Malakand, Multan, Khanewal, Khyber, Jhang, Quetta, Okara, Islamabad, Lahore and Abbottabad are among the cities were large demonstrations were held. Protests were also staged in Bajaur, Lower Dir, Shangla, Kohistan, Mansehra, Swat, Gujrat, Faisalabad, Nowshera, Dera Ghazi Khan and Mandi Bahauddin.
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Earlier in the day, Khan tweeted that today marked the beginning of a “freedom struggle” against what he called was a “foreign conspiracy of regime change”. In an attempt to galvanise his supporters, he said “it is always the people who protected their own sovereignty and democracy.”
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PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry had also called on the people to stage protests after Isha prayers while speaking to the media in Islamabad earlier in the day. He said that Khan not leading a massive movement would amount to a “betrayal with the country’s politics and Constitution”.
The party later issued a schedule of the various protests that were planned for cities all over the country starting 9:30pm.
Imran thanks protestors for ‘amazing outpouring of support’
Following the protests on his party’s call, Imran thanked his supporters in a tweet done prior to midnight.
“Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support and emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail,” he tweeted.
“[It] shows Pakistanis at home and abroad have emphatically rejected this.”
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