LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has given a go-ahead to his party cadres for the ‘million march’ on Islamabad, now terming it ‘Azadi March’, scheduled for August 14 and vowed the people’s power will create a new Pakistan.

Urging his followers to consider this ‘final showdown’ their own battle, Mr Khan asserted the PTI would go to any extent to bring all those to book who had “stolen public mandate” and ensure these elements should be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution.

Mr Khan made a brief appearance and a speech at the PTI Punjab’s organisational meeting called on one-point agenda of “Tsunami March” at a local hotel on Wednesday. PTI’s all MNAs, MPAs and ticket-holders from across Punjab gathered there to know about their future course of action.

The PTI chief held Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for the hardships being faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs), saying he had single-handedly allowed the military operation that displaced some six million residents of North Waziristan.

“Neither the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government nor I, being the head of second largest political party in the country, was informed about launching the military operation,” he said.

Now, he said, all the IDPs were the sole responsibility of the PML-N government and it should not use them to do politics against PTI’s ‘Azadi March’. Still, he said, the KP government and the PTI would do all out efforts to help the IDPs.

He said the KP government and the PTI would have been better prepared to handle the IDPs, had they been informed about the operation well in time.

He lauded PTI Punjab secretary general Dr Yasmin Rashid for her efforts towards providing relief goods and healthcare services to the IDPs. Mr Khan said the prime minister would have better understood the gravity of the situation had he not been wasting time in escorting his son to India for ‘personal business meetings’.

“I was the only leader who was crying hoarse about the aftermath of the military operation but the government turned a deaf ear to my assertions,” he added.

The PTI chief said the ‘Azadi March’ would help bring true independence to Pakistan through change in the electoral system.

“If the existing election system is not changed, the old political parties and mafias will continue to rule and keep the educated youth, the middle class and professionals away from the corridors of power,” he said.

He urged all segments of the party, including its youth and women wings, to start preparing for the march ‘comprising at least one million people’.

He also invited other political parties to join the march to create “Naya Pakistan” and added that their response to his invite would tell whether they were looking for a change or the status quo. He also asserted that the PML-N and the PPP had “struck a deal” and were conniving with each other.

Earlier, PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry announced preparation plans for the march and directed the party’s tehsil-level office-bearers to start holding iftaars for their supporters and ensure their participation in the August 14 show. After Eidul Fitr, he said, the youth should start motorcycle rallies in each constituency across the province on a daily basis to build the tempo for the “final march towards Islamabad”.

PTI leaders Javed Hasmi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid and Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014