Will continue 'fighting thieves till dying breath,' says Imran Khan as he halts long march

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan on Friday took a sharp dig at Shehbaz Sharif-led ruling coalition, saying that he will continue to fight the thieves till his dying breath and halted the long march on the very first day of the anti-government protests.

He announced that the march will again resume for Islamabad from Shahdara from 11 am on Saturday, Geo News reported.

"I knew Lahore will never disappoint me," he said, addressing the participants of the march at the Data Darbar, Lahore. "However, we are concluding our Islamabad-bound journey for today," he said adding that the long march is a "jihad" for real freedom.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman called PTI Chief Imran Khan's politics deceit and that his lies have been exposed.

In a press conference, she said Khan would "sacrifice the country for his greed for power".

"PTI's march is not a long march, but a short march. If he wants to do a long march, he should have started from Karachi. They ask us why we have put blockades all over the capital," Geo News reported quoting Sherry Rehman as saying.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan started his "Haqeeqi Azadi Long March" on Friday to press for his party's demand for early polls. The march took off from Lahore's Liberty Chowk at 11 am on Friday.

"The purpose of the long march is not any political gains or to topple the government, but to make sure that our future is not decided by foreign players," said the PTI chief via a video message on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Imran Khan directed his supporters to call off demonstrations for the long march against the government, after his disqualification by the Pakistan Election Commission triggered nationwide protests.

Ahead of PTI's long march, Islamabad police issued instructions to its officers pertaining to the code of conduct during the march expected to reach Islamabad in a few days.

The PTI's long march comes a day after Pakistan's spymaster addressed the public in a rare joint press conference, alongside the head of the country's military media wing.

On Thursday, the Director-General (DG) of the ISI, Nadeem Anjum, and the DG of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar held an unprecedented joint press conference over the mystery surrounding the killing of senior Pakistan journalist Arshad Sharif.

"When lies are being spoken so easily, fluently, and without inhibition from one side that there is a danger of chaos and upheaval in the country, the truth cannot remain unspoken for too long," Anjum was quoted as saying by Dawn, about his decision to speak out, in response to the alleged role in Sharif's killing.

( With inputs from ANI )

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