Imran Khan stays defiant as PTI workers, police clash in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Friday said flood of people would eliminate the obstacles of police deployment to reach D-Chowk  as his supporters clashed with police amid tear gas shelling and aerial firing.

Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the PTI workers from the residence of the former cricket hero who intends to mount a march on the federal capital on November 2  to push the government for an inquiry into offshore business interest of the ruling family and hundreds of other Pakistanis whose names appeared in massive data leaks of a Panamanian law firm.

The government and the opposition parties failed to hammer out consensus on terms of references for a proposed judicial commission to probe the matter, with Khan accusing the government of hindering the investigation.

“You can’t stop me even if you deploy 50,000 policemen,” said the PTI chairman while talking to media outside his residence which was surrounded by police and paramilitary troops in an effort to stop him from attending Sheikh Rashid’s rally.

The PTI chairman continued his bellicose rhetoric against the N-League government after the events of Thursday which saw scores of his supporters arrested in a police raid at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf youth convention.

“Imprison me if you wish so, but I will haunt you the moment I am released,” he said and warned Punjab Police department against employing torture.

“I was almost put under house arrest while Nawaz Sharif was not stopped from holding rally in Kohat. I would like to ask Nawaz Sharif whether it is a monarchy or a democracy,” he said. Khan said PTI information secretary Naeemul Haq was not allowed to enter Bani Gala.