Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to keep up his struggle to return to the country's political sphere while delivering his first public speech since being shot in an assassination attempt earlier this month.
"I'm more worried about the freedom of Pakistan than my life," he told a rally in the city of Rawalpindi that neighbors the capital Islamabad on Saturday, adding "I will fight for this country until my last drop of blood."
The rally marked the high point of a "long march" that Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has organized in support of its call for a snap election before the parliament's term expires in October next year.
Khan was voted into power in 2018 on the promise of fighting corruption, and remedying the country's economic woes.
Last month, Pakistan's election commission disqualified him from holding public office for five years on alleged charges of unlawfully selling government gifts he had received from foreign dignitaries and concealing his assets.
"I have seen death from up close," Khan also told the Saturday rally, which was his first public appearance since the attempt on his life in the northeastern city of Wazirabad earlier in November.
Protests break out in Pakistan after Imran Khan assassination attempt
Protests break out in Pakistan after Imran Khan assassination attempt
Protests break out across Pakistan following the abortive assassination attempt against Imran Khan.
Khan has been holding countrywide protests to push the government for early elections ever since being ousted from power. The protests were to culminate in a march to Islamabad, but Khan said on Saturday that he was calling off the protest march toward Islamabad, because he feared it would cause havoc in the country.
"I have decided not to go to Islamabad because I know there will be destruction and the loss will be to the country," Khan said.
The attempt saw a gunman opening fire from close range as Khan's open-top container truck made its way through a crowded street.
Khan has accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military officer of masterminding the assassination attempt.
The government, however, denies the accusation, saying the attempt against Khan's life was the work of a lone wolf who is now in custody.
Saturday's rally took place two days after the government named a former spymaster as the next military chief.
General Syed Asim Munir's had served as chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency under Khan, but his stint ended after just eight months following a reported falling out.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/11/26/693449/Pakistan-Imran-Khan-address-rally
Any moment now I am expecting John Cleese (a veteran of Monty Python) to jump out of the bushes and announce the creation of the Ministry of Silly Wars, with Donald Trump as the deranged leader. For you youngsters out there, Monty Python’s skit, The Ministry of Silly Walks, helped make the members of MP legends. I had to reference Monty Python because the line of bullshit the Trump administration is feeding the American people and the world about the amazing, obliterating US attack on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, is more ridiculous that all of the silly walks pictured in the following video:
My hopes that Donald Trump would finally act like a responsible adult are dashed. He’s a dangerous buffoon. While the team around him are working frantically to maintain the fiction that Trump has a vision and is calling the shots on the foreign policy front, he is careening around the globe like an out-of-control cue ball on a billiards table. It started a week ago… first, he claimed...
Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the launch of the Fujian, China's first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Official media said China is about to enter a three-aircraft-carrier era, with the Fujian expected to enter service by 2025.
After the launch of the Fujian on June 17, 2022, it carried out its first sea trial from May 1 to 8 in 2024. Since then, the Fujian has completed multiple sea trials, accumulating more than 100 days of sea trial, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Tuesday.
Wei Dongxu, a Chinese military affairs commentator, said that the aircraft carrier Fujian has been making steady progress in sea trials, and is expected to be commissioned within this year, CCTV News reported.
With a full displacement of more than 80,000 tons, the Fujian is the world's first conventionally powered aircraft carrier to feature electromagnetic catapult technologies, according to CCTV News. The report noted that it will carry a wide variety of carrier-borne...
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China and Central Asian countries have explored and formed the China-Central Asia Spirit, which features mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual assistance, and the pursuit of common modernization through high-quality development.
Xi made the remarks in his speech at the second China-Central Asia Summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Xi said that the Chinese side has decided to establish three cooperation centers and a trade facilitation platform within the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism.
When addressing the summit, Xi said these institutions include the China-Central Asia poverty reduction cooperation center, the China-Central Asia education exchange cooperation center, the China-Central Asia desertification control cooperation center, as well as the China-Central Asia trade facilitation cooperation....more below
