Imran Khan says ready for talks if govt announces election date

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Friday said he was ready for talks with the government on other issues if it announced a date for fresh elections in June. He dispelled reports that he had called off the protest after a deal with the establishment, saying that he ended his sit-in plans to avoid bloodshed in the country.

Talking to reporters at the Chief Minister’s House here, he said: "I called off the protest to avoid bloodshed. We did not want to clash with our own police and forces. But the government must not construe it as our weakness. We will organise another long march in an organised manner if the date for fresh elections is not announced,” he warned.

Earlier, Imran Khan went to Mardan to offer his condolences to the family of a PTI worker, who died during the Azadi March on Swabi-Islamabad Motorway on May 25.

Imran said the PTI was holding peaceful rallies, but the government used brutal force against the participants in the march. He said it was not difficult for the PTI to stage a sit-in in Islamabad as they had successfully done so in 2014. "The party activists were angry at the use of force and there was a possibility of a clash. They even did not spare former minister Omar Ayub, who was taken to hospital after he sustained injuries," the PTI chief elaborated.

Imran Khan claimed that handpicked officers had been deployed to target the peaceful marchers. “Force was used against the marchers even after the Supreme Court ordered us to hold the protest rally,” he said.

The former premier said he had also written to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take notice of the use of force against peaceful protesters in D-Chowk in Islamabad.

“It's our fundamental right and no one can deprive us of it,” Imran Khan said, and reiterated his pledge to launch another march if the government delayed announcing the date for fresh elections.

The PTI chief paid kudos to his party workers who reached Islamabad despite hurdles and teargas shelling and baton-charge. “I appreciate your sacrifices and your commitment to the cause of the country,” he said, adding that he offered condolences to the family of Syed Ahmed Shah who fell from the Attock Bridge during the Azadi March. "The sacrifices of the martyrs would not go waste and the families of workers who were martyred in the independence march would not be left alone,” he added.

Imran Khan said the "imported government" was imposed under a conspiracy. “We had pulled the country out of crises. But we were not allowed to complete our constitutional tenure,” he added.

He said the "imported" and so-called experienced government bowed to the International Monetary Fund and accepted its conditions. "The dollar has crossed the 200 mark and the recent increase in oil prices will multiply people’s miseries,” he went on to add.

Imran Khan said his government had initiated talks with Russia for the import of oil to lessen the burden on the people. "India as a free country managed to secure a deal with Russia to avail oil on discounted rate though it also had good ties with the US," he said.

The PTI chief criticised the government for reversing the NAB and election laws. "We will move the court against these illegal changes," he added. Some of his party workers were said to be upset with him for not taking them into confidence about calling off the long march in Islamabad.