Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), broke a global record on Wednesday night with his virtual jalsa, as he spoke live on the Twitter Space.
Nearly half a million users (over 446,000) from around the world interacted with Khan via Twitter Spaces — an audio live feature. The average number of users listening at a time was 165,000. The session was curated and hosted by Dr. Arslan Khan and Jibran Ilyas last night at 10 pm local time. It was also live-streamed on Facebook and Instagram with thousands watching.
Approximately half a million users interacted with Imran Khan with an average of 165,000 users reportedly listening at the given time his virtual jalsa. The record was previously held by K-POP Lyrical Space with over 44,000 listeners.
On Lahore rally
To a question about a threat to his life at the Lahore rally today, Khan said he would attend no matter what. “Minar-i-Pakistan is a special place because the Pakistan resolution was presented there. Indian Muslims decided that they wanted a separate homeland. We will also launch our freedom movement there. I believe a record number of people will come,” he said.
Khan said he did not expect such huge crowds would come out in his support after his government was ousted earlier this month. “I had expected just five percent of what actually came out. When I saw people I was so happy because I saw a nation emerging for the first time. I saw where we should have been 75 years ago.”
Terming the protests by overseas Pakistanis “unprecedented”, he added that conspiracies would not work anymore as people had become politically aware.
Role of the army
“Never ever speak against the army. If we didn’t have the army, we wouldn’t have survived. The army is more necessary than Imran Khan,” he said, adding that enemies of Pakistan were attacking the army and both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari undermined the army when in power. “What were Dawn leaks and Memogate?” he asked.
The PTI leader needed to attend to other urgent issues of importance, such as what will happen to memes that social media supporters have said they are tired of making. “I have stopped reading papers. Social media has taken over, I only watch social media,” replied Khan.
Wake-up call
Talking about the chief election commissioner, Khan said ECP’s judgments were “anti-PTI”. “The day foreign funding cases of all three parties are heard simultaneously, it will be clear that only PTI has a proper system of funding,” he added.
Choosing electable workers over core PTI workers is part of the future strategy, he said, adding that they gave out tickets to the wrong people this time, and ideological workers would be preferred over electables next time. “Last time, I didn’t give tickets myself. This time I will not approve a single ticket without scrutiny,” said Khan.
Media freedom
In response to a question about 95pc of the media being against him and his government, he said that during his tenure the media was free in the country. “So-called liberals used to attack us about media freedom. We faced the most criticism and propaganda. They spread fake news against us. Today, all of the media is blacking us out. This is because these mafias co-opt media owners,” he said.
“I found out three months ago that journalists and anchors were getting foreign offers to run campaigns against us. But this will not work in the age of social media. Information will get out and it cannot be stopped,” Khan added.
In closing the session, Khan said that he had never seen such a widespread feeling of nationalism in the people as he had noticed after his government was removed.
Read More: All You Need To Know About Imran Khan’s Speech At Karachi Jalsa
What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments section below.