LAHORE: After losing the Punjab chief minister`s office to PML-N`s Hamza Shehbaz, PTI chairman Imran Khan said all eyes were again on the Supreme Court as the party planned to challenge the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker`s rejection of votes of PML-Q lawmakers.

`I expect the Supreme Court to play its role in light of Hamza Shehbaz`s shock win over Parvez Elahi in the Punjab CM election,` Mr Khan said in a virtual address to the nation.

He also urged his workers and supporters, particularlythe youth, to take to the streets to register their protest on Friday night. He said the masses should carry out peaceful protests all over the country to tell the world they were not goats and sheep, but humans.

`Register your protest today so they know the Pakistani nation is alive.

Tell them that you will not let these dacoits steal the mandate of the public,` he stressed.

`I am in shock at what happened in the Punjab Assembly over the defeat of PTI-backed Mr Elahi,` he declared, adding that parliament did not have an army, but moral authority.

Mr Khan further said: `A mandi (market) was set up.

Our children were watching it. Every child has social media these days. There was a market set up where the price of the conscience of public leaders and parliamentarians was determined,` he said. `Even there, the biggest culprit was the biggest dacoit Asif Zardari. He has gone to jail for corruption and still rules over Sindh. He became part of the imported conspiracy.

The former prime minister said he went to the people`s court after being removed from the PM of fice and his peaceful protest was tear-gassed and homes were raided. The people responded to his call to reject `US slavery` and subsequently his party swept the recent by-elections.

`We got to know two days ago that Asif Ali Zardari was playing a game,` he remarked.

Talking about PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat`s letter sent to the deputy speaker, Imran Khan said the document had no significance because a parliamentary party head had to direct lawmakers to vote for a certain candidate. `Shujaat wrote a letter directing his party`s MPAs to vote for a certain candidate but that was rejected and the parliamentary leader wrote a letter instead.

He also said Chaudhry Shujaat was not PML-Q`s parliamentary party head but the chief of his party.

Mr Khan said if petty thieves were jailed and the big looters not caught then the nation would not progress.

`We will deal with them again and again; they will never let the country progress. As the rupee depreciates, their wealth will increase; their wealth is lying in accounts abroad in dollars. We will not allow the robbers to steal our mandate with stolen money,` the PTI chairman vowed.

He said the current political turmoil would further create economic uncertainty in the country.