Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan will participate in a telethon to generate funds for the flood victims in Pakistan tonight, Party’s General Secretary Asad Umar announced on Sunday.
The announcement came a day after the former prime minister while visiting flood relief camps in DI Khan said that he was under pressure to initiate a fundraising for the victims, however, he will not do so unless he is confident of how the money would be spent.
In a message from his Twitter handle, top party leader Fawad Chaudhry shared that Imran Khan will address a live international telethon from 9:30 pm to 12:00 midnight.
“The chief ministers of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also accompany him during the telethon,” he said.
Fawad added that the telethon would be broadcast on television channels if the court suspends a ban on live speeches of Imran Khan. “Otherwise, it will be broadcast live on 500 digital platforms,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Punjab Parvez Elahi telephoned top PTI leaders to persuade party chairman Imran Khan for announcin a fundraising campaign for flood affectees.
Parvez Elahi telephoned Asad Umar and Shibli Faraz and urged them to ask Imran Khan to announce a fundraising drive for flood affectees. “Floods have wreaked havoc across Pakistan and we should leave all things aside and support the victims,” he said.
He emphasized that the entire nation should work together for the restoration of roads, schools and hospitals. “The rehabilitation of the victims and provision of food and medicines is among our top priority,” the chief minister Punjab announced.
On Saturday, Imran Khan, addressing PTI public gathering in Jhelum, said that he would help the flood-affected people but would not stop his campaign for real independence.
Addressing a party rally in Jhelum, the PTI Chief announced establishment of a fund to collect donations for the flood-affected people of the country, adding that Dr Sania Nishtar would head the relief and rescue fund collected via the telethon.
The PTI Chief said that these are testing times and he believes that the Pakistanis will come out of this crisis as a strong nation. “Overseas Pakistanis have always stepped up, may it be the floods of 2010 or the Kashmir earthquake in 2005,” said Imran Khan will calling for the country’s vibrant diaspora to help their countrymen in this hour of test.
