Former Cricketer and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s anti-Nawaz Sharif protest —“Occupy Islamabad” scheduled for November 2 — has sent Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong into a tizzy.
Two days after Imran’s video showed him vigorously exercising, with a caption asking Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to be “very afraid”, the panicked Chinese Ambassador met Imran late on Tuesday, to ensure that Chinese investments in Pakistan — especially the $51 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — aren’t a target of PTI’s “Occupy Islamabad”, several Pakistani newspapers reported.
Following the meeting, Imran on Wednesday clarified to Sun Weidong that his party’s planned protest is not directed at the CPEC project. Imran’s PTI plans to completely shut down Pakistan’s Capital during the protest against Sharif’s “lack of accountability” after being implicated in the Panama Papers leak, and his alleged inaction on the Kashmir issue.
Officially, there was no word from the PTI on the meeting, but sources said discussions revolved round the CPEC and the PTI’s upcoming sit-in, which aims to force Sharif to present himself for accountability.
Sources said the Chinese Embassy did not want any projection of the meeting and asked the PTI not to issue any press release of the event. “The meeting was kept low-key. We lived up to our promise and did not issue any official handout. Instead, pictures have been released to spread the word around that the meeting did take place,” said a source privy to the matter.
Earlier this year, the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad had issued a press statement calling on the political leadership of the country to resolve their issues for the smooth implementation of the CPEC.