Former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday warned that his party would take to the streets if the Supreme Court’s order on holding polls in Punjab on May 14 was violated, adding that the PTI would not get ‘trapped’ in the government’s ‘ill-intentioned plan’ to delay elections.
“PTI will approach Supreme Court for elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab if the government did not dissolve the remaining assemblies by May 14,” Imran said while addressing the PTI’s ‘May Day’ rally in Lahore from inside his vehicle. “They [government] want to hold elections when they believe I will be out of their way. Their only aim is to take me out of the way,” he said. The PTI chief said the government is making “excuses” that it has to present the budget and that “they think that they can trap us in their ill-intentioned-plan”. “If the government thinks that it can stall and the PTI will wait, then they are wrong. We will move the court and demand elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),” he added. The PTI chief said his party would put forth only one proposal in the meeting tomorrow: dissolve all assemblies – Sindh, Balochistan, and national – and head for polls before May 14. The PTI chief said if the government did not agree to this demand, refused to accept the apex court’s verdict on Punjab polls, defied the chief justice and his fellow judges and violated the Constitution, then “I want to say the PTI will come out on streets and we will bring the nation out with us”. “I’m warning the thieves and their handlers that if you go against the Constitution and think you won’t accept the SC decision … then my nation will come out with me and on the country’s streets we will get the rule of law established,” he said, calling on his supporters to prepare for the “battle for Haqeeqi Azadi (true freedom)”.
The PTI chief said the apex court had already ordained May 14 as the date for the Punjab polls, adding that the only case where the elections would not be held was if the government agreed with his party’s stance on joint elections.
Laying down the PTI’s condition for one-day polls, Imran said that the remaining assemblies should be dissolved by May 14, adding that the party was only engaging in negotiations with the government at the chief justice’s advice.
Imran Khan said that they stand with the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Constitution, adding that till now they have held peaceful public gatherings and political rallies and maintained that the next week will be ‘decisive’. The PTI chief was of the view that if the Constitution was breached, the economy would further deteriorate, lamenting that the people were already hard-pressed by unprecedented inflation in the country. “If the political situation was not stabilised, chances of foreign investments were low,” he added.
