Pakistan's ex-PM Imran Khan says his party to quit all Assemblies

He told tens of thousands of his cheering supporters that his Tehreek-e-Insaf party was leaving all regional and national Assemblies and getting out of this "corrupt system.”

Pakistan's former premier Imran Khan said on Saturday his party was quitting the country's regional and national Assemblies, as he made his first public appearance since being wounded in a gun attack earlier this month.

Mr. Khan, a former cricket star turned politician, was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April. He is now in the opposition and has been demanding early elections, claiming his ouster was illegal and orchestrated by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, with the U.S. government’s help. Sharif and Washington have dismissed the allegations and the current government says the next polls will be held as scheduled in 2023.

Mr. Khan launched a protest march late last month from the eastern city of Lahore toward Islamabad as part of his campaign for early polls, but stepped down from personally leading the convoy after he was wounded by a gunman who opened fire at his vehicle. One of Khan’s supporters was killed and 13 were wounded in the attack. The gunman was arrested.

On Saturday night, in Rawalpindi city near Islamabad, Mr. Khan rejoined the protest march.

He told tens of thousands of his cheering supporters that his Tehreek-e-Insaf party was leaving all regional and national Assemblies and getting out of this "corrupt system.”

His party resigned from the national assembly en masse in April ahead of a vote to elect a new Prime Minister, although most of the resignations have yet to be accepted. Mr. Khan's stronghold is in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and leaving the Punjab assembly would hand power to his rivals.

The politician spoke for more than an hour, including references to the Sufi mystic Rumi, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the seventh-century Shiite leader Imam Hussain.