Imran Khan on Saturday urged his supporters to reach Rawalpindi on November 26 where the ousted Pakistan prime minister said he said he will announce his “next plan of action” for the protest march against the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Addressing his party members via a video link from his residence Zaman Park here, Khan said the nation cannot remain “neutral” at this critical juncture.
“Reach Rawalpindi on November 26 where I will meet you and give the next plan of action (to reach Islamabad),” he said.
“If the nation remains neutral today, then the coming generations would regret that their elders sat in homes and did not stand against injustice,” he said.
Before announcing the date, a team of doctors examined him at his residence, some 280 kilometres from Lahore.
Khan, 70, survived a gun attack on his convoy while holding a protest march in the eastern city of Wazirabad on November 3. The attack took place as Khan was leading the march, which was meant to end in the capital Islamabad.
According to his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, his wounds are healing fast and he will be able to take part in the protest campaign later next week.
Khan said his life is still in danger but will “prefer death to slavery as it has been in my mind since childhood.” Taking a dig at the powerful military establishment, the PTI chairman said: “What you have achieved in the last seven months by imposing thieves (Sharifs and Zardaris) on the nation.” “The agencies have the record of the corruption of the Sharifs and Zardaris but still they let succeed in the foreign conspiracy against my government and imposed the thieves on us,” he said.
Khan said the establishment can take the country in a positive or negative direction while emphasising that the country’s future lies in the fresh elections.
He also took a jibe at Pakistan Peoples Party chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto.
“Bilawal has no future in politics. He still cannot speak Urdu properly. He will spend most of his life where his father (Asif Zardari) has stashed the looted money,” Khan said.
The long march began on October 28 from Lahore and is on its way towards Islamabad.
The PTI has announced plans to hold a historic power show in the capital and also sought permission for it but the government has not granted it.
Khan was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan. The US has denied the allegations.
The cricketer-turned-politician, the only Pakistani Prime Minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, is seeking fresh general elections.
However, the federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz is opposed to holding elections now. The term of the current National Assembly will end in August 2023.
The long march is expected to reach Islamabad in the last week of November.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.