Imran Khan vows to resume early election demands in "long march" next week

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said his supporters’ “long march” towards the capital demanding early elections will re-start on November 8 after it was disrupted by an attempt on his life by a gunman.

Khan made the remarks in a video broadcast live on social media on November 6 from a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, where he was receiving treatment after being shot in the leg during the protest march three days earlier, Al Jazeera reports.

The chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was later discharged from the health facility.

“Our march will resume on Tuesday [November 8] from the place in Wazirabad where I and 11 other people were shot, and where Moazzam was martyred,” Khan announced, citing the name of PTI worker Moazzam Gondal, who was killed in the attack.

The 70-year-old said he would not join in person while he recovered from his wounds but will do so when the convoy reaches the city of Rawalpindi.

Khan welcomed the offer by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to launch a judicial commission to investigate the attack but questioned whether the inquiry would be impartial.

In addition to Sharif, the cricketer-turned-politician has blamed interior minister Rana Sanaullah, and a top general of the Pakistan army for attempting to assassinate him, demanding that all three resigned. He has provided no evidence to support the accusation.

The government has called Khan’s allegations baseless, saying he was damaging the country with “false and cheap conspiracies”.