Ready for talks if govt announces poll date: Imran Khan

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Friday said he was ready for talks with the government on other issues if it announced a date for fresh elections in June.

He dispelled reports that he had called off the protest after a deal with the establishment, saying that he ended his sit-in plans to avoid bloodshed in the country.

Also Read: End of Azadi March, No deal with establishment: Imran

Talking to reporters at the Chief Minister’s House here, he said: “I called off the protest to avoid bloodshed. We did not want to clash with our own police and forces.

But the government must not construe it as our weakness. We will organize another long march in an organised manner; if the date for fresh elections is not announced,” he warned.

Earlier, Imran Khan went to Mardan to offer his condolences to the family of a PTI worker, who died during the Azadi March on Swabi-Islamabad Motorway on May 25.

Imran said the PTI was holding peaceful rallies, but the government used brutal force against the participants in the march. He said it was not difficult for the PTI to stage a sit-in in Islamabad as they had successfully done so in 2014.

Also Read: Imran Khan can’t dictate govt: PM Shehbaz Sharif

“The party activists were angry at the use of force and there was a possibility of a clash. They even did not spare former minister Omar Ayub; who taken to hospital after he sustained injuries,” the PTI chief elaborated.

Imran Khan claimed that handpicked officers had deployed to target the peaceful marchers. “Force used against the marchers even after the Supreme Court ordered us to hold the protest rally,” he said.