Imran Khan threatens to take Sharif to court for 'lying'

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has threatened to drag embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the Supreme Court to seek his disqualification for allegedly lying about protesters and the army in parliament, as the political logjam showed no sign of easing.

Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, in an overnight address to protesters in front of parliament also said that he the sit-in will continue until government accepted his demands including resignation of Sharif.

"The PTI leadership will approach the Supreme Court to get Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disqualified as he was telling lies on the floor of the National Assembly regarding the leadership of the PTI, PAT and the army," Khan said.

He said that Sharif was lying to harm his party and fiery cleric Tahirul Qadri.

Khan and Qadri have been protesting in front of the parliament to force Sharif's resignation over alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections won by his PML-N party.

Several rounds of talks have failed to resolve the over three-week-long crisis as protesters want nothing less than Sharif's ouster and fresh polls. The government has ruled out prime minister's resignation and proposed a judicial commission to probe the alleged rigging while Sharif has shown willingness to resign if the charges against him are proved.

Khan charged that the government was lying to the people of Pakistan that the Chinese President Xi Jinping has cancelled visit due to protests but the fact is that he had not plan to visit Pakistan, as the trip was not finalised.

He said that the government's dialogue committee was announcing to the media that five demands of the PTI related to probe the alleged rigging in last year's polls and implement electoral reforms have been accepted but it has not informed the party about it.

Khan also criticised the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for telling a pack of lies to the parliament when he said growth rate had increased 4.1 per cent last year, as later he told the IMF officials that the growth rate remained at 3.3 per cent.

Khan had earlier alleged that the government lied to the people about army's mediation in the crisis. Meanwhile, the talks between the government and PTI are expected to resume today after one day break.

The process is going very slow. The two sides have reported progress but still there are differences of over several issues. Khan on Saturday moved his makeshift stage, set-up on a shipping container mounted on a truck, from in front of the secretariat buildings to the D-Chowk facing the Parliament.

Poulist cleric Qadri of Pakistan Awaami Tehreek is also camping close to Khan's camp. His supporters have vacated the parking lot of the Parliament and are now sitting near the Constitution Avenue.