Day 10: Empty chairs mark PTI's dharna in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The 10th day of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) dharna in Peshawar was marked by the conspicuous absence of party workers at the venue.

Usually, PTI workers reach the location of the dharna around 9am, but today the venue was found to be deserted.

Aside from a few dedicated members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Qaumi Jamhoori Ittehad (QJI), the protest against Nato supplies and drone strikes appear to have died out for now.

The K-P government has however chalked out a plan to protest in front of the Parliament House in Islamabad on December 5 to pressurise the federal government to pass a resolution against drone strikes and Nato supply lines.

PTI protests

The protests started on November 23 after the Hangu drone strike at a madrassa on November 21 that had killed six people including members of the Haqqani network and injured at least eight others.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan had stepped up his rhetoric since a drone attack killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud on November 1.

He had accused Washington of deliberately sabotaging fledgling efforts towards peace talks with the militants. He had urged the government to halt trucks travelling through Pakistan with supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan. But the government has shown no appetite for the move, leaving PTI activists to take matters into their own hands.

In recent days PTI supporters armed with clubs have set up checkpoints on roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and forcibly searched trucks for Nato supplies.