Clashes claimed 54 lives, 45 were shot: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Imran Khan alleged that 54 protesters have so far lost their lives and 45 of them had been shot.

Addressing the participants of Azadi March here in the Red Zone of the capital city on the 19th day of PTI’s protest, Imran Khan said this kind of torture was not even witnessed in the eras of Ziaul Haq and Musharraf.

He said the political parties had ganged up in the Parliament and ruled out transparent democracy in the country sans accountability of those involved in the alleged rigging of the last year’s general elections.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is directly responsible for the rigging and that is why no investigation was conducted despite relentless demands,” he alleged.

He maintained that eight relatives of Mehmood Khan Acakzai had been appointed on high ranking positions while his brother was made the Governor. “Achakzai is silent over the rigging because it benefited him a big time,” he added.

Imran Khan said Akhtar Mengal is also crying rigging in Balochistan.

He said it is also a fact that all the Parliamentary parties have admitted that rigging did take place in elections of 2013.

The PTI chief asked Chaudhry Nisar what crime had he and the marchers committed for which the police came out with full force against them.

He said considered it beneath him to react to the statement of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman.

Earlier, Imran Khan announced that his party’s MNAs would attend Wednesday’s National Assembly session.

He said Shah Mehmood Qureshi will explain during the joint-session why his party’s MNAs resigned.