Protest campaign: PTI eyes rural Punjab support in August campaign

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is looking into the possibility of challenging the rural base of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in its protest campaign scheduled to start on August 7.

PTI chief Imran Khan had announced the launch of the campaign during the party’s national workers convention on July 20. At the time Naeemul Haq, PTI’s central information secretary, had announced that the party will organise a protest march every week starting August 7.

“Now that the party has announced its regional heads, we are gearing up to build a momentum in the Punjab around the Panama Papers,” Leader of Opposition Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said on Friday.

“We wanted to finalise the party structures before mobilising the workers,” he said.

Rasheed has been at the forefront of the party’s attempts to reach out to other political parties in the province. Rasheed had called a meeting of the parliamentary opposition parties earlier this month to enlist support of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The parties party extended support in a joint declaration and announced mass to force the government to call mid-term elections next year.

Explaining the strategy of the opposition, Rasheed said each party may stage its own protest.

“We are looking into coordinated activities as part of each party’s independent campaign. Mobilising party workers and people is essential for our campaign,” he said.

He said the PTI was looking into holding district conventions to mobilise workers in this regard.

The party’s Core Group is expected to meet over the weekend in Islamabad where decisions related to finalising the organisation as well as the campaign will be made.

Party insiders said the merits of various strategies for the campaign were being weighed. The party might also reach out to lawyers through bar associations, they said.

PTI’s former Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry said the party must make timely decisions.

“Time is of the essence, especially in matters of public mobilisation,” he said.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi also expressed similar concerns, saying the government wished to delay the Panama Papers inquiry long enough for the public to lose interest. Chaudhry said heavy rains could also impede mobilisation efforts.

“Our aim is to reach out to remote areas of the province which have been neglected in the past,” he said.

“A proposal for launching a protest demonstration that goes from August 14 to September 7 and targets the rural population of the province is also under consideration. We have many ideas but our focus will be the rural Punjab and Lahore,” Chaudhary said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2016.