Imran Khan announces rally in Islamabad next Friday to demand PM's resignation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has announced to hold a protest rally in the capital next Friday to demand resignation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over the split verdict by the Supreme Court in Panama leaks case.

Speaking to media after a chaotic session of the National Assembly, Khan reiterated his demand that the Prime Minister step down, following the apex court’s ruling that further investigation was needed into corruption allegations levelled by the opposition at the PM and his family.

Citing the dissent note by two judges of the Supreme Court, Khan said the PM had lost the moral authority to rule the country.

“Two senior SC judges [of the five-member bench] said the PM should be disqualified because he was no longer ‘sadiq’ and ‘ameen’,” the PTI chief said, adding that any other ruler in another country would have stepped down after these “historic” remarks.

“Nawaz Sharif no longer has the moral authority to be the prime minister. In any other country the ruling party itself would have demanded resignation from its ruler,” Khan said.

“Why is PML-N distributing sweets? What are they celebrating?” the PTI chairman questioned.

Khan said his party has invited all other opposition parties to join in the protest.

Criticising the formation of JIT by the Supreme Court to further investigate the prime minister and his sons over corruption allegations, he said it was not possible for the team to carry out transparent investigation if Nawaz Sharif continued to be the prime minister.

Khan compared the current scenario with the UK where David Cameron quit after he lost the Brexit referendum, despite being elected with a landslide majority, because he lost the moral ground to lead.

The SC, in its historic verdict on Thursday, ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation team (JIT) to carry out an investigation into how Gulf Steel Mill came into being, its sale and liabilities, how the sale proceeds ended up in Jeddah, Qatar and the UK, and how the Prime Minister's children at their tender age had the means to purchase the flats in the early nineties.

Read more: SC order on Panama Leaks case

The apex court also ordered the JIT to present its report every two weeks before the SC bench, and directed the Prime Minister and his sons Hasan and Hussein to appear before the JIT as and when required, which will complete its investigation within 60 days of its formation.

The ruling PML-N declared the verdict a 'victory' for the party and said it would observe 'Thanksgiving' day on Friday. 

At the other end of the spectrum, PTI announced it would mark Friday as the day of 'Thanksgiving and Riddance' and said it would offer 'Nawafil' after the Friday prayers to acclaim the verdict.

Read more: PML-N observes ‘Thanksgiving’, PTI marks ‘Day of Riddance’