ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday said his party will join Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) if Dr Tahirul Qadri decides to launch a street agitation against the government over the Model Town killings.
Speaking to the media after appearing before an anti-terrorism court, the PTI chief said he was wrongfully being tried under anti-terrorism laws.
“Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah should instead be implicated in a terrorism case,” he said, adding that the 2014 sit-in was “peaceful”.
Reiterating his demand for resignation of Sanaullah and Shehbaz, the PTI chief said that they should be in jail for the violence during the Model Town incident of 2014.
“Only a fascist government, bred in the laps of dictators, can implicate political opponents in terrorism cases,” he said. “We will join Tahirul Qadri if he takes to the streets,” Imran said, referring to the PAT chief.
This is the third time the PTI chief has appeared in the ATC in cases related to the violence perpetrated during the protest sit-in in Islamabad in 2014.
Earlier during the hearing, the police apprised ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand that the PTI chief has joined the investigation and is longer an absconder.
Imran’s counsel Babar Awan argued in the court that the jurisdiction of the ATC in the case has already been challenged, and the court should first decide on the matter before proceeding with the case.
The court then adjourned the hearing until Dec 11.
