‘Pakistan Spring’: Massive pro-Imran Khan crowds bring neighboring country to knees

Islamabad: Pro-Imran Khan protests rocked the neighboring country fueling rumors of `Pakistan Spring’ akin to the Arab Spring that sent Hosni Mubarak’s government packing in Egypt a few years ago.

“Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support and emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail. Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this,” Imran Khan tweeted.

“Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported govt led by crooks,” he said in another tweet.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday took out rallies in several cities of the country to protest against party chairman Imran Khan through a successful vote of no-confidence the previous night.

Earlier, Khan said that today marked the beginning of a “freedom struggle” against what he called a “foreign conspiracy of regime change”. In an attempt to galvanize his supporters, he said “it is always the people who protected their own sovereignty and democracy”.

“Pakistan became an independent state in 1947, but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy,” he said in another Tweet.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry had also called on the people to stage protests after Isha prayers while speaking to the media in Islamabad earlier in the day. He said that Khan not leading a massive movement would amount to a “betrayal of the country’s politics and Constitution”.

The party later issued a schedule of the various protests that were planned for cities all over the country starting at 9:30 pm, according to Dawn newspaper.