Pakistani opposition leader Imran Jan has announced that the «long march» on Islamabad will resume next Tuesday from the same point where he was shot last Thursday, in Wazirabad.
«We have decided that the march will resume on Tuesday from the same place in Wazirabad where I and eleven others were shot and where (Shahim) Moazzam was killed,» Jan announced at a press conference from the hospital in Lahore where he is still in hospital after being shot four times in both legs, reports the Pakistani daily ‘Dawn’.
«I will head for the march from here and in 10 to 14 days, depending on the speed, we will reach Rawalpindi,» Islamabad’s twin city, he explained. It will be at that point that Jan will join the «long march» to lead it.
Jan accused the government and an army general of involvement in the assassination attempt. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday called for the setting up of a judicial commission of inquiry.
Jan has expressed his satisfaction for the creation of this commission, although he has warned that «a fair and impartial investigation is impossible» and has stressed that his criticism and accusations against specific individuals are not a criticism of the Army as an institution.
«I am surprised that the press office of the IS secret services responded by saying that Imran Jan has affected the entire army by accusing an officer,» he said.
Jan has claimed that he has been the victim of a conspiracy by the government and the Army Intelligence services, with whom he has been at loggerheads since the no-confidence motion that ousted him from power in April this year.
The assassination attempt took place during the «long march» on the capital, Islamabad, in which thousands of supporters are protesting Jan’s disqualification for alleged corrupt practices. Such marches on Islamabad are already a traditional political tool in Pakistan in which the opposition forces a change of government through mass mobilizations.
