Imran Khan postpones PTI's election rally in Lahore till tomorrow

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday announced postponing the party's election rally in Lahore till tomorrow (Monday), and claimed that Section 144 was imposed illegally in the city solely because of the "PTI election campaign as all other public activities are ongoing in Lahore."

Imran claimed in a Twitter post that only Zaman Park, his residence, was surrounded by containers and a heavy police contingent.

"Clearly, like 8 March, Punjab CM, and police want to provoke clashes to file more sham FIRs against PTI leadership and workers and to use as a pretext for postponing elections," he alleged.

Imran questioned the veracity of the caretaker government's move, saying that the "election schedule has been announced so how can Sec 144 be imposed on political activity?"

"I AM TELLING ALL PTI WORKERS NOT TO FALL INTO THIS TRAP," he wrote.

Earlier, the Punjab caretaker government imposed Section 144 in Lahore and imposed a ban on the PTI rally, which was scheduled for today.

"We have restricted Rallies and Political activities for today as we have PSL Cricket Match, team movements, and Marathon in Lahore which were all planned and announced much in advance," Punjab caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a Twitter post.

He went on to say that there is no ban on political activities," adding that all political parties are freely allowed to campaign.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday announced that he would lead a public rally on Sunday (today) in the Punjab capital and castigated the “authorities” for killing his party worker.

While addressing the PTI supporters gathered outside his residence through a video link, the former Prime Minister said that he would lead the election rally to show them that they were not domesticated animals.

He came hard on interim Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi and IG Punjab Usman Anwar for declaring the death of PTI worker Ali Bilal aka Zille Shah accidental. He reiterated that Shah was murdered in police custody and demanded a judicial probe into it.

The PTI chief said that the “powerful” segments want to get the upcoming general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cancelled at all costs.

“They would try to get the polls cancelled by assassinating a prominent personality or creating serious law and order situation in the country; I know that they would do something to stop the election,” he added.