Washington, Nov 1 (ANI): American media has given wide coverage to Pakistan cricketer turned politician Imran Khan's anti-government rally in Lahore on Sunday, suggesting that it marks a political shift in Pakistan.
Khan's rally capped a weekend of demonstrations that started on Friday when the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif drew thousands in Lahore to call for the government's ouster.
However, the Post said, "Neither of those rallies was as big or enthusiastic as Khan's, at which pop stars sang to a dancing, flag-waving crowd from Lahore and beyond. Most immediately, the numbers represent a threat to Nawaz Sharif's party, whose stronghold is Punjab province", The Nation reports.
"Khan, like Sharif, is agitating for a widespread protest campaign, what he called a 'tsunami' rolling toward the Federal capital, and his ability to drum up a massive turnout is likely to worry the government, which aspires to be Pakistan's first-ever democratically elected administration to complete its term", it added.
The New York Times also came up with a more or less similar analysis about the rally.
"The rally represented what supporters and some political analysts said was Khan's emergence as a serious challenger to the governing PPP and its longtime rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-N," it said.
"The size of the crowd that Khan drew in Lahore ... surprised his opponents and made an impression on political analysts. Khan, 58, has languished on the political sidelines for years, and his political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, has no seats in the current Parliament. But his popularity has soared recently as voters, especially younger ones, have grown disillusioned with the establishment parties," The New York Times reports.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman "cursed" the government in the rally, insisting that its alliance with the US was the main reason why his country was facing home-grown Taliban insurgency.
"Our leaders owned this war on terror for the sake of dollars," Khan told the crowd assembled around the country's most important national monument, the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore.
"Let me curse you. You sold out the blood of innocent people," he added. (ANI)
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