Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Jan has released a video for his supporters in which he assures that he will fight for the defense of freedom «until the last breath», while his formation, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), has resumed the long march towards the capital, Islamabad.
«We must win the war for the future of the country,» said Jan, urging his supporters to join the mobilization towards the capital in defense not only of «their future and that of their children», reports the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’.
For the former head of the Pakistani government, the country is «turning into a banana republic» as the population is losing confidence in the institutions. At this point, he appealed to the head of the Supreme Court to «save the country».
«The nation has lost confidence in the institutions. This has to be fixed because the country does not function without institutions,» remarked Jan, who considers the situation serious and «unimaginable» in Western societies.
Jan’s message comes on the same day that the PTI has confirmed that it is resuming its long march to the capital under the leadership of former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi, although when the column reaches the city of Rawalpindi, it will be Jan himself who will lead the convoy.
The former prime minister was attacked last Thursday when a man opened fire on him during a demonstration called by the PTI against the government in the city of Wazirabad. The incident resulted in the death of one man, and the wounded also included Faisal Javed, another senior member of the party.
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 not having declared the money from the sale of gifts and presents received from international leaders when he was at the head of the government.
His departure from office was followed by a growing political tension marked by scandals of transfugism 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.
