Low numbers: PTI protests fail to attract large crowds in Sindh

One side of the Sharae Faisal was closed by the demonstrators.

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's call to Pakistanis to rise up against the government did not seem to stir up sentiments in the city as hardly a few hundred protesters took to the streets on Sunday.

A day earlier - in reaction to the violent clashes in Islamabad between PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) protesters and the police, which killed at least three and injured another 400 - Imran asked people across the country to take to the streets in protest, even if it required breaking barriers.

"People, kindly come out to support Imran Khan and stay here," a volunteer, Sara Ahmed, shouted into a microphone at the sit-in at Teen Talwar. "If you do not come out today, you will never be able to again."

By the evening, around 300 people - the number almost tripled till the filing of this report - had come to participate in the protest, blocking one side of the Khayaban-e-Iqbal road that leads to the Do Talwar. Despite the low turn-out, the crowd was charged up as they believed the government had conspired to hide the 'much higher' death toll in the Islamabad incident.

The protesters, holding PTI flags and hand-made placards inscribed with statements against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, continued to show their rage and anguish as the microphone kept rotating among the participants. "Army! While you are engaged at the borders to protect the citizens, why didn't you intervene to protect the citizens in the country's capital," asked a female protester sitting at the front.

For Daniyal Javed, a photographer volunteering at the PTI's Teen Talwar protests, the police who had viciously beaten the protesters as they proceeded towards the Prime Minister House were not with the citizens of Pakistan. "They decided to side with Nawaz Sharif and are equally accountable for the crimes they committed last night."

The protesters also observed a 15-second silence for the journalists and cameramen who were assaulted by the police in Islamabad while performing their professional responsibilities for various media organisations.

Sharae Faisal protest

A relatively smaller number of PTI supporters also gathered for a sit-in at the Sharae Faisal - one of the busiest thoroughfares of the city - blocking off one of the carriageways.

Police personnel, a few of them in riot gear, stood on alert as around 250 men and women emerged to start out the sit-in as the party leaders present at the scene continued to bicker whether the road should be blocked or not, contesting who is in charge.

The participants chanted 'Go Nawaz Go' slogans as a few enraged youth spray-painted expletives on the road. They were, however, censored by others who asked them to consider the presence of women.

"The 'Gullu Butts' of the PML-N, wearing police uniforms, tortured peaceful protesters as well as media personnel, but the army did not do anything," said Ahsan Sarfaraz, a 40-year-old businessman who came from Gulistan-e-Jauhar to participate. "We want the army to remove this government and hold re-elections."

Others shared similarly hostile emotions towards the government "This protest is to condemn the police brutality in Islamabad at the behest of the PML-N government," said PTI Women Wing leader, Erum Wahab Butt while talking to The Express Tribune. "We demand justice, but not from this government because it has lost all credibility."

Numaish Chowrangi was once again sealed with water tankers stationed on both sides of the roads, disconnecting it from the rest of the city on Sunday. The protest was organised by the Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) in the wake of the Islamabad protests on Saturday night.

A few dozen men, women and children participated in the sit-in at the Chowrangi. Traffic coming from Lasbella Chowk, Mazar-e-Quaid and MA Jinnah road was diverted towards alternative routes.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2014.