Azadi March

The Azadi March, also called Tsunami march, (Urdu: آزادی مارچ‎; lit. Freedom march) was the public protest march that held in Pakistan began on 14 August 2014 to 17 December 2014. Organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party against Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, over the claims of systematic rigging by PML-N in the 2013 general election. Party leader Imran Khan announced plans for a protest march travelling from Lahore to Islamabad in August with a throng of protesters in a PTI jalsa (lit. demonstration) and then in Bahawalpur on 27 June 2014.

Khan had initially named this planned protest march "Tsunami march" but later changed the name to "Azadi march" (or the "Freedom march") since its slated start date coincided with Pakistan's 67th independence day on 14 August 2014. The PTI chief called this march the final phase and the defining moment in his party's movement against electoral rigging in 2013 elections. He announced his plans to march with a million protesters to the nation's capital Islamabad to protest against prime minister Nawaz Sharif's illegitimate government. This prompted many analysts to name the protest "Million march". Khan assured the government that the protest march would be a peaceful protest culminating in a sit-in protest.

Azadi

Āzādī (Persian: آزادی‎‎) is an Iranic word, meaning freedom and liberty. The word is used in other Iranic languages, such as Luri, Pashto, Kurdish, and Baluchi and is also borrowed by other languages such as Azeri Turkish, Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri

The term is also common among activists in Indian Administrated Kashmir involved in right to Self-determination, where Azadi means Revolution, Liberation and Freedom. A film by a Kashmiri Pandit, Sanjay Kak depicting the Kashmir Conflict was named Jashn-e-Azadi.

The term has also entered into the lexicon of activists involved with refugee rights, and the rights of the mid-eastern diaspora in the western world, for instance in the Australian film Azadi.

Events

Places

Azadi sport complex facilities

Imran Khan

Imran Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) better known as Imran Khan is a Pakistani politician, former cricketer, philanthropist, cricket commentator and former chancellor of the University of Bradford. He is also founder of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and the Namal College, Mianwali. Khan played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and, after retiring, entered politics.

Khan was Pakistan's most successful cricket captain, leading his country to victory at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, playing for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992, and serving as its captain intermittently throughout 1982–1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup in 1988, owing to popular demand he was requested to come back by the president of Pakistan Zia ul Haq to lead the team once again. At the age of 39, Khan led his team to Pakistan's first and only One Day World Cup victory in 1992. With 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, he is one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches. On 14 July 2010, Khan was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.