Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Jan was shot and wounded Thursday after a man opened fire during a rally called by his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party against the government, amid his pulse with the new authorities following his dismissal in a no-confidence motion in April.
Farruj Habib, a senior PTI official, said on his Twitter account that Jan was wounded by gunfire in the Wazirabad area, while the newspaper ‘Dawn’ said that among the wounded is also Faisal Javed, another senior member of the party.
According to the information gathered by the Pakistani television channel Geo TV, the PTI leader has suffered wounds in a leg and has been taken to a hospital, without further details about his condition for the moment. Police said that the attacker has been arrested.
For his part, the chief minister of the Punjab region, Parvez Elahi, has stressed that «those responsible for this incident will soon be brought to justice», before assuring that «the injured should be provided with the best medical care». «A report has been requested from the inspector general of police,» he stressed on his Twitter account.
Jan himself, who has called for a «long march» for «real freedom,» said Wednesday that the mobilizations could last ten months. «Let the nation choose who governs and brings prosperity,» he maintained, in a new call to the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, for the call of early elections.
This is the second march organized by Jan this year. The first was held at the end of May, but ended once the protesters reached Islamabad’s Red Zone, where the main government buildings are located.
Jan, who in April became the first Pakistani president to be ousted in a no-confidence motion, was disqualified at the end of October by the electoral commission for failing to declare money from the sale of gifts and presents received from international leaders when he was in charge of the government.
His departure from office was followed by a growing political tension marked by scandals of transfuguism and massive protests in favor and against the Prime Minister, denounced by the opposition alliance of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) as a «puppet» of the Army. The Armed Forces are considered to be the most powerful force in Pakistan since its independence from the British Raj in 1947.
