'Defiant' Imran refuses to back off, calls rally in Lahore today.

LAHORE -- As he urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to take action against interim chief minister Mohsin Naqvi and the Punjab police bigwigs for a crackdown on the March 8 election rally, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in an apparent act of defiance has decided to take out another rally in Lahore on Sunday (today).

In light of the rally, the district administration has imposed Section 144 in the Punjab capital. The decision came after the deputy commissioner warned the former ruling party that the administration would not have any other option but to impose Section 144 if it did not pay heed to its concerns in the wake of a PSL match in the city. But the PTI claimed it has changed the route of the rally to not disrupt the match.

Lamenting over the 'custodial torture' allegedly resulting in the death of a PTI worker, the former prime minister requested the Lahore High Court chief justice to constitute a judicial commission to ascertain the facts leading to Ali Bilal's death. 'We have no hope for justice from these savages in power,' Mr Khan said in his televised address on Saturday.

'I have decided that I will fight against the corrupt system and looters of national wealth till the last drop of my blood,' he announced and urged the masses to stand beside him. Otherwise, he claimed that the corrupt rulers would take the country to a disaster where the younger generation would have no future.

Holding the ECP responsible for Ali Bilal's death, Mr Khan said the PTI had sent a list of police and civil administration officers, who had brutally tortured party leaders and workers on May 25 last year, but the 'neutral' caretaker government still got them back to repeat the brutality on roads on March 8. 'The ECP was responsible for establishing a neutral set-up in the province to hold elections in a free and fair manner,' the PTI chairman asserted.

Asking the ECP to take resignations from its appointees - caretaker chief minister, the police chief, and the Lahore CCPO - Imran Khan also said the 'psychopath' - a purported reference to a senior intelligence agency officer - should also resign. He said the 'psychopath' was creating hatred between the people of Pakistan and the state institution.

'Instead of dividing the nation, it is high time the nation should get united,' the former...