ISLAMABAD: PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has asked his party supporters to wait for his call for street agitation following an attack on one of its leaders and central information secretary Raoof Hassan outside the office of a private news channel earlier this week.
Reacting to the development, Khan, who has been in jail since his arrest last year in August, said his party was facing “political persecution” and would no longer tolerate it.
“During past two darkest years in Pakistan’s history, PTI’s political persecution was carried on with complete impunity,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“We were subjected to the prohibited war tool of collective punishment — our houses trespassed, our people killed and tortured, our businesses destroyed, even the elderly and children were not spared. For the sake of Pakistan, we have been very patient so far. But ENOUGH IS ENOUGH NOW!!
The heinous attack on Raoof Hassan is very instigating and further demonstrates that the powerful are unwilling to accept dissent, preferring to resort to cowardly tactics rather than addressing the underlying problems.”
“I instruct all of you— my central party leadership, central, provincial and local party organization, members, workers, supporters and the common man to wait for my street agitation call,” he added.
Imran Khan said he had repeatedly said it was not possible to reach economic stability without first working for political stability in the country.
He maintained the last two years had witnessed the worsening of the economic conditions of the common man since the ouster of his administration from power in a no-trust vote in April 2022.
The PTI has said it has been facing a state crackdown, especially after May 9, 2023, when riots broke out after Khan’s brief incarceration from an Islamabad court on graft charges.
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