ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan Friday said the nation stood firmly behind him while the ‘imported’ government and its handlers were at their wits’ end, desperately working on minus-1 formula.

In a statement on Twitter, Imran said he would announce the next phase of his Haqiqi Azadi movement in his Gujranwala public meeting speech on Monday. On the heels of the Islamabad High Court’s decision on Thursday to indict him on September 22 in the terrorism case, Imran tweeted, “Tomorrow, our Gujranwala jalsa will be the last of our present phase of Haqiqi Azadi movement. I will announce the next critical phase at the jalsa. Imported government & its handlers are so petrified that the nation is standing firmly behind the PTI while they are desperately moving on Minus 1 formula”.

Meanwhile, Imran chaired a meeting of the party’s political committee to take stock of the latest political situation and its options for future course of action as well as the cases being filed against the PTI chairman.

The meeting decided to intensify the public contact campaign and protest against inflation. In this regard, the provincial presidents of PTI have been instructed to protest against inflation. Imran said, “Public support is our biggest strength. We are competing against the government’s tactics in the field; 13 parties ran away from the elections fearing one party. The purpose of my movement is to defeat the mafias of this country. Our common citizen has joined the real freedom movement.”

Later, PTI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain held a news conference at Banigala to brief reporters on the decisions taken in the meeting. He said a protest movement was being launched across the country to express solidarity with Imran Khan and urged the nation to join the movement.

“We hope that the nation will participate in rallies against the campaign to technically knock out Imran Khan and to postpone the by-elections. From next week, we will talk against electricity, oil, gas and inflation,” he noted.

Pakistan will formally become a banana republic in case Imran is disqualified, he added. Fawad said all parties except PTI were in the government adding that pushing to the wall a party that was playing the role of the only opposition was like playing with a toy.

He said Imran will inform the nation about the next phase of his movement in the Gujranwala rally. “We are now going to start the final movement. The people will now get the real freedom. InshAllah, the elected government of the people will soon take power. We have explained the issues to a great extent in response to the Islamabad High Court’s decision. It is the job of lawyers to satisfy the judges.

Fawad said at the moment their focus was on defeating the minus-1 agenda. “Bilawal did the drama on the recommendation of his own government on the postponement of elections, saying that the elections should not be postponed. Was he sleeping when his government was writing this letter?” said Fawad.

“In our view, this is an illegal government. In order to maintain it, they want to first throw Imran Khan out of politics and then hold elections. This is neither workable nor will it be,” Fawad said. He said Pakistan’s politics was pro- and anti-Imran adding that there could be no democracy by disqualifying Imran Khan.