Imran Khan disassociates himself from Pak PM Shehbaz’s heckling in Saudi Arabia

PTI

Islamabad, April 30

Pakistan’s ex-premier Imran Khan has distanced himself from the pilgrims who hounded and chanted abusive slogans against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation during their visit to Masjid-e-Nabwi in Saudi Arabia, saying he can never imagine of asking anyone to carry out sloganeering at the holy mosque, a media report said on Saturday.

Khan, in an interview with ARY News, said overseas Pakistanis had come out openly “like never before” in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom in protest over the ouster of his government.

“This is the public reaction. We are not asking them to come out,” he said in a snippet of the interview which will be aired on the first day of Eid.

Khan said people were coming out because of their pain at what had happened and they were angry, he said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz is in Saudi Arabia on a three-day visit, along with a delegation including members of his cabinet Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, among others.

After arriving in Madina on Thursday, they headed to the Prophet’s Mosque to offer prayers. Video clips that went viral on social media later that night showed some of the pilgrims chanting slogans of chor (thieves) as soon as members of the official delegation arrived at the holy mosque.

Some protesters were seen chasing and trying to physically attack Bugti and Aurangzeb who were escorted by the guards and police officials. One of the protesters was seen pulling Bugti’s hair when he was being escorted to a safer place by the guards. In another video, even obscenities were hurled at Aurangzeb.

Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, sister of the newly-appointed Foreign Minister Bilawal, had blamed Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the incident, saying the Opposition party was inciting “intolerance and divisiveness”.

Responding to the incident, Khan said, “I cannot think of asking anyone to do sloganeering at that sacred place. Nobody who loves the prophet can even think of it,” the Dawn newspaper reported. “What happened was because of their (new government’s) own actions — the way they ousted the previous government by becoming a part of a foreign conspiracy. The way an NRO 2 (National Reconciliation Ordinance) was given through that conspiracy and the most corrupt people were imposed on the country,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

Khan’s remarks came after Saudi authorities on Friday arrested some Pakistani pilgrims for hounding and chanting abusive slogans against Prime Minister Shehbaz. Khan, the PTI chairman, challenged the coalition government’s members to visit any public place, such as a cricket ground, saying, “They will not be able to show their face there.” The PTI had taken out protest rallies across the country on April 10, a day after Khan lost a vote of no-confidence. Since then, Khan has addressed attended rallies in several cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

Khan on Saturday announced a rough timeframe for his planned long march to Islamabad, issuing a call for the last week of May without mentioning the exact date, the Dawn reported.

“This call is for all of Pakistan — not just to the PTI,” he said in a video message released by his party PTI.

“I want to give a message to all of Pakistan to start preparing from now. The start of our preparation will be chaand raat (eve of Eid) and I want to say specifically to the youth that you have to come out with flags and tell the whole world that the Pakistani nation is alive,” he said.

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