Supporters and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday began to pour into the streets of major cities across the country in a show of support for the ousted premier Imran Khan.
Earlier in the day, Imran had tweeted that today – a day after his removal from the office – marked the beginning of a “freedom struggle” against what he called was a “foreign conspiracy of regime change”.
To energise his supporters, the former prime minister said, “It is always the people who protected their own sovereignty and democracy.
“Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change,” he wrote. “It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty and democracy.”
Consequently, answering the call of the PTI chairman, nationwide large protests erupted.
According to reports, around over a thousand protesters gathered at Lahore’s Lalik Jan Chowk and Liberty Market here on Sunday night.
PTI leader Hammad Azhar posted a video of a rally from his constituency of NA-126 leaving for Liberty Chowk.
PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry also shared a video of a rally from the city’s NA-133 constituency to Liberty Market in which slogans against the United States could be heard.
Shouting the slogans in unanimous chorus, a large number of PTI workers, other citizens as well as civil society representatives condemned the “foreign conspiracy” which, they alleged, had been behind the attempts to overthrow the PTI-led government.
Demonstrators also turned out on Gulberg’s Main Boulevard which remained jam-packed with protesters.
The protesters held PTI flags, banners and placards on which slogans were inscribed in favour of Imran Khan.
Similar protests were recorded in various other cities including Kasur, Nankana Sahib, Shahkot, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Narowal, Sialkot, and Sahiwal, Pakpatan, Okara, Faisalabad, Chiniot, Jhang, Sargodha, Khushab, Bhakkar, Rawalpindi, Jehlum, Chakwal and Attock.
Although the protests had erupted on Saturday evening when the National Assembly was in session to pass a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan, the agitation strengthened on Sunday after Imran announced an official call for peaceful protests.
Karachi
A large protest was also held in Karachi on Rashid Minhas Road.
Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh was among the local PTI leadership that was present.
The protestors chanted slogans against the “imported government”.
A large number of citizens, including women and children, alongside party leaders participated in the protest near Millennium Mall.
PTI leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi, while addressing the rally, that both MQM “along with three rats” has betrayed the nation.
Peshawar
Rallies were taken out from different locations in and the surrounding areas of Peshawar in support of Imran Khan. Men and women of all ages in huge numbers were seen chanting slogans and holding banners inscribed with “We Want Imran Khan”, “He Will Come Back”, and “We Reject Imported Government”.
Overseas protests
Meanwhile, overseas supporters of the PTI also turned up to support Imran Khan.
The party supporters and workers staged a protest demonstration outside Avenfield flats in London, the residence of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
A video shared by Ali Haider Zaidi showed protestors raising slogans of “diesel” — a reference to Fazlur Rehman of the JUI-F.
Imran thanks protestors
Taking to Twitter later in the day, the PTI chairman thanked the protestors and claimed that the agitation signalled Pakistanis’ “rejection of the foreign conspiracy”.
“Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail,” Imran wrote on Twitter.