...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is
Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
told his supporters on Thursday that the government had removed the Islamabad police chief for not using force against him, and warned the new police chief Khalid Khattak not to follow orders to crack down against the protesters.
The government denied it had any plans to confront the protesters.
Khan, a famed cricketer-turned-politician, and fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
holy man Tahirul Qadri
...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him...
have led massive protests from the eastern city of Lahore to the gates of Parliament in Islamabad to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, accusing him of rigging the vote that brought him to power last year.
The protests have raised fears of unrest in the nuclear-armed US ally with a history of political turmoil. Shah
Mehmood WormtongueQureshi, a big shot of Khan's party, told news hounds that the opposition presented six demands, including Sharif's resignation.
The other demands include electoral reforms, setting up a caretaker government, removing top election officials and accountability for anyone found to have rigged last year's elections, which marked the first democratic transfer of power in Pakistain after a long history of coups and dictatorships.
It is unlikely Sharif would give ground on those demands, which the government considers illegal.
Cabinet Minister Ahsan Iqbal said government negotiators held initial talks with Khan's party — the legislature's third largest — before dawn Thursday.
"We again went to an agreed place today for more talks, but the team of Imran Khan did not turn up," he said.
He added that the government wanted to find a "win-win solution."