WORLD NEWS | Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan leads election rally in Lahore

Islamabad [Pakistan]March 13 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan held an election rally today from Zaman Park in Lahore to Data Darbar after the local government sanctioned it, Dawn reported.

According to news reports, the election rally began in Zaman Park, where Pakistan Justice Instigation (PTI) chief Imran Khan led the rally in an armored vehicle.

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Video shared on PTI’s official Twitter account showed large numbers of supporters and workers gathering in the streets as the rally progressed towards its destination. Many PTI leaders especially from Punjab and their supporters attended the rally.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry used his official Twitter handle to share details on the intensity of the rally. “Looking at the rally in Lahore right now, stopping Imran Khan looks like stirring up people’s anger,” he tweeted.

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Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vice-president of PTI, told reporters before the rally began: “I would say to the government, we have to keep the peace, keep the peace, don’t want chaos. We have no intention of breaking the peace, it’s not us party idea or action plan,” according to Dawn.

The rally was originally scheduled for Sunday. However, the rally was postponed after Punjab’s caretaker government imposed Rule 144, citing the Pakistan Premier League and the city’s marathon at Gaddafi Stadium. The caretaker government of Punjab allowed the PTI to hold the rally on Monday. However, according to news reports, the government had said it would pose a “high security risk due to the general and specific threats to political rallies and the incident in which the former prime minister was attacked”.

On Sunday, Imran Khan criticized the Punjab caretaker government’s decision to implement Article 144. He tweeted: “It seems that once again, Section 144 is illegally imposed on PTI campaign as all other public events are taking place in Lahore. Only Zaman Park is surrounded by containers and heavy police contingent .It is clear that the Punjabi CM and the police want to provoke a conflict just like on March 8.”

In another tweet, he said, “File more false FIRs against PTI ldrshp and workers and use it as an excuse to delay elections. Election timetable is out so how to impose section 144 on pol campaigns? I tell All PTI workers are not falling into this trap. So we are postponing the rally until tomorrow.” (Arney)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)