Imran Khan and his party PTI have been holding massive rallies and are attacking Shezbaz Sharif's government as "foreign funded" and "imported".
As Imran Khan and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf wage nationwide campaign against what they call an "important government", a senior PTI leader and former minister in Khan's government has warned that Pakistan is inches away from full-fledged civil unrest.
Fawad Chaudhry, who was Khan's information minister before his government was topped in a no-confidence motion, on Saturday warned that Pakistan was sliding towards civil unrest.
Chaudhry said on Twitter, "We are inches away from full-fledged civil unrest. Imran Khan has exercised utmost restraint [but] very soon even he won’t be able to stop this very angry mob and we will see country plunging into a civil unrest.”
The comments came in the wake of brawls in the Punjab assembly in which both speaker and deputy speaker were thrashed by angry lawmakers. The police was called to control the rowdy members who were trying to stop acting speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari from holding voting to elect Punjab's new chief minister.
Chaudhry also said that the ongoing political turmoil was linked to the Supreme Court’s “failure” to decide the case regarding the fate of rebel lawmakers.
Another PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari echoed Fawad’s statement, writing on Twitter, "These are just a few MPAs [members of provincial assembly. Imagine if the awam [public] goes out of control and takes the matter in their own hands. Only solution to calm this civil unrest is election. Let the people decide their own fate. Call elections!”
Khan and his party have upped the ante since the fall of their government. They have been holding massive rallies across the country and have been attacking the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as "imported" and "foreign funded". This is in line with their allegations of a foreign hand in the overthrowal of their government, as per which a foreign power unhappy with Khan's foreign policy conspired with the Opposition to remove him from office.
For several days prior to his unceremonious dismissal, Khan cited a letter, sent to Pakistan's foreign ministry from a diplomatic mission abroad, that allegedly mentioned how the host country had warned that relations with Pakistan would suffer if Khan remained prime minister.
The country has been understood be the United States as Khan mentioned in an address in an apparent slip of tongue. The US has repeatedly denied these allegations. But it has been central to Khan's and PTI's recent political rhetoric.
With PTI inputs