Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday announced the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will stage its next rally in Mianwali on Sept. 29 (Sunday), adding this will be followed by a public gathering in Rawalpindi.
In a video statement, he said the Mianwali rally would be preceded by rallies nationwide in support of an “independent” judiciary and protection of the Constitution. An independent judiciary, he stressed, was essential for securing the release of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan.
“I will come and hold a gathering in Mianwali, followed by another show of power in Pindi and other cities,” he said, urging the public to support the PTI’s movement for rule of law, democracy and Khan’s release from Adiala Jail. “We stand with Imran Khan and our struggle will continue until we get him released and elect him the prime minister,” he added.
During his address, the chief minister also addressed a demand from the Punjab government for him to tender an apology for vitriolic remarks during the PTI’s Islamabad rally earlier this month, saying he would not issue any such statement. “What should I apologize for and to whom,” he questioned, maintaining that the people who had arrested Khan and were harassing PTI workers should tender an apology instead.
“I’m neither a slave of the Punjab government nor anyone else,” he said, challenging the provincial government to file a case against him if they wished.
Defending his absence from the Lahore rally—which Gandapur arrived to attend after it had already concluded—the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister claimed the Punjab government had erected barricades around the protest venue to discourage attendance. Daring the Punjab government to allow the PTI to hold a rally at Minar-e-Pakistan, he criticized PMLN President Nawaz Sharif and accused the PPP and PMLN coalition of “attacking democracy.”
Gandapur also maintained that the PTI did not accept the incumbent government and would reject any “illegal” amendment to the Constitution and courts formed as a result of them.