A day after the ouster of Imran Khan in a no-confidence vote, supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party staged massive protests across the country and abroad, with Pakistan’s new Prime Minister set to be named on Monday.
The former World Cup winner tweeted clips showing throngs of people gathered outside in protest, exclaiming, that he’d never witnessed “such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history.” The former PM also called the opposition an “imported” government led by criminals.
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“I am grateful to the people of Pakistan for coming out in large numbers to protest against the change of government at the expense of the local Mir Jaffers with the support of the United States,” the 69-year-old tweeted afterwards, maintain his charge that the regime change was influenced by foreign interests.
Earlier, PTI spokes person Fawad Chaudhry had called for massive protests across the country while speaking to the media in the capital, Islamabad, adding that the series of recent had been a “betrayal [to] the country’s politics and Constitution.”
Protests, however, have not been limited to Pakistan. Hundreds also gathered on Sunday outside the home of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London, whose brother Shehbaz Sharif is tipped to become the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, amid continuing political instability in the country.
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Protesters from Khan’s PTI reached Sharif’s residence at Avenfield apartments in London, while the supporters of the opposing PML-N also gathered in support of the party supremo. The confrontation between the two sets of demonstrators was broken by police intervention.
Khan had assumed power in 2018 on the back of vows to create a “naya [new] Pakistan” devoid of corruption and with a strong economy, but four years later, his promises have not come to fruition. However, Khan alleges that his ouster was the outcome of a ‘foreign conspiracy’ by the US, which has been flatly denied by Washington.