The city administration and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) are deadlocked after failing to agree on a venue for the party’s November 30 rally. The administration awaits a response from the federal government, while the PTI insists on staging a protest at the same location it has been flexing its muscles for the last three months.
Ali Nawaz Awan, an ‘Azadi Dharna’ organiser for the PTI, said the venue of the sit-in could not be decided as the party has not accepted the administration’s offers to hold the rally at any of three alternative locations — across Centaurus on Jinnah Avenue, Kashmir Highway and Fatima Jinnah Park — instead of D Chowk.
Awan said that the party has assured the administration that they will limit the rally to Parade Avenue and will not move towards Constitution Avenue, adding that the negotiations have not yielded any results yet. “We are still at a standstill,” he said.
“The venue has not been decided so far,” said Islamabad Chief Commissioner Zulfiqar Haider. The commissioner said negotiations were underway and the final decision on the venue would be forthcoming. Haider said that options to hold a rally at other venues were present earlier as well, but the final decision will be taken in a meeting with the PTI after the federal government’s input.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2014.
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