Alongside PTI chairman Imran Khan, the former foreign minister addressed about 40,000 people, using the platform to criticise President Asif Zardari and the government before declaring his allegiance to PTI, becoming the party’s most high-profile defector so far.
Qureshi spoke with fervour for the PTI cause. “I announce I am joining a movement which is struggling to win justice for people,” he said, adding that the “winds of change have now begun.” His formal statement that he was joining the party was greeted with thunderous applause.
The former foreign minister said he had started his journey on January 27, changing path because he refused to “sell Pakistani blood” in the Raymond Davis issue. He said he decided to quit the Pakistan Peoples Party “and think for Pakistan only.” Qureshi fell out with Zardari after, he claims, he withstood pressure to approve diplomatic immunity for Davis, a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January.
Qureshi took full opportunity to take swipes at his former colleagues. “Today I am going to tell you a most important thing, so listen to me very carefully: Pakistan’s nuclear assets are not safe in the presence of President Zardari,” Qureshi said. He also accused the government of indulging in “loot and plunder”.
Qureshi also made religious analogies to his struggle. He said that the day was the first of Muharram and the most important day in the history of Islam, before referencing Imam Hussain’s “sacrifice”.
Imran, who termed Qureshi a “clean candidate”, emphasised the meritocratic structure of his party, ruling out his children taking over PTI one day. “We will hold internal elections in the party right from the union council level to the central body,” he said.