Protest against government: PTI juggernaut shuts down Karachi

Party stages sit-ins at 20 venues in the city, throttling all the main arteries.


Photo Irfan Ali/rabia Ali December 12, 2014

KARACHI:


Thousands of people swamped the streets of Karachi on Friday in support of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, as the party’s first attempt to shut down the city remained fairly successful with traffic off the roads and many markets closed.


In all, there were 20 designated spots for sit-ins in the city including 10 major locations – such as Native Jetty, Kala Pul, Teen Talwar, Numaish, Five Star, Hasan Square, Nursery, Star Gate, Qayyumabad, Super and National highways – which choked the city’s main arteries.

Workers of the party began assembling on the roads as early as 6am, and in some areas, such as Expo centre, tyres were burned to push back traffic. Buses remained off the roads and a majority of schools were shut. Thousands of commuters who rely on public transport were unable to make it to their offices.

As PTI workers chanted ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ slogans an effigy of a lion was set ablaze on Shahrah-e-Faisal, the city’s main thoroughfare.

Around 2:18pm, Imran Khan’s plane arrived in Karachi at the old airport. Clad in a white kameez shalwar and party flag around his neck, he spoke to the media and thanked people of the city, the transporters and traders for their response.

Imran said he would later hold a press conference to show that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s leader Rana Sanaullah’s men were behind the killing of a party worker in Faisalabad.  “I will file a case against [them] all.”

Imran, however, did not mention the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or its chief Altaf Hussain – with whom he had traded barbs in the past – but said it was the basic democratic right of his party, as well as that of every citizen, to protest peacefully.

With men hanging from his black bulletproof Land Cruiser, he reached the first sit-in site, Star Gate, where a large number of activists had already gathered. Heads draped in green and red headbands, they danced to Pushto songs.

The PTI chief waved and spoke from his car only, pledging to talk to them all later at the party’s gathering at Nursery area. As the political cavalcade made its way to Shahrah-e-Faisal, media vans sped away with zealous groups of bikers following closely behind.

Some last-minute changes were made in Imran’s itinerary. His party apparently scrapped his earlier plan to visit all major sit-ins venues in the city. Instead, Imran left for a party leader’s house.

Speaking to media from there, he said the “sooner the judicial commission was made, the sooner the issue of rigging would be solved”.

Other sit-ins in the city started wrapping up, and men and women, young and old, made their way to the Shahrah-e-Faisal. Equipped with a sound system, a truck – carrying the PTI leader Asad Umar – jostled its way amidst the massive crowd. With announcements made to clear the way, the truck kept on moving and stopped near Nursery Bridge, the expected spot for Imran Khan’s address.

People shoved and pushed to get closer to the truck. Some climbed atop tall billboards, others on trees and rooftops of nearby apartment complexes and houses.


PHOTO: ONLINE

Speaking from the cramped truck, PTI leader Arif Alvi said that people voluntarily closed down their businesses and that nobody had forced them to do so. Another leader Najeeb Haroon said a new Pakistan is in the making where everyone would get their rights. Repeated appeals were made to party workers and photographers to ‘get off the truck’. ‘The chairman is coming,’ echoed continuously.

Imran Khan, however, never came to the truck and spoke to the crowd from his car, his speech lasting less than 10 minutes.

“On December 15, we are coming to Lahore,” he said, adding that people of Lahore will block roads just like people in Karachi. Imran Khan said after a judicial commission is set up, all those involved in rigging of general elections of 2013 will be punished for the first time.

“I see a Naya Pakistan and genuine democracy,” he said, adding that after rigging is uncovered, there will be a new election commission and fresh polls.

Imran left some of his protesters dismayed as many of them could not catch a proper glimpse of him.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.

COMMENTS (21)

Raza | 9 years ago | Reply

@Shah Farman: PMLn is not confused. Economic loss was done by PTI to satisfy its ego. Call for voluntary shutdown was flop, for only a handful of workers were seen blocking roads on each point with the support of police.

Ro Imran Ro | 9 years ago | Reply

@the Skunk: Sir u must be high, there was no mamoth gathering. At teen talwar the heart of Dr. Alvi's NA250 there was barely anyone out blocking the road except for a dozen PTI thugs supported by Police barricades blocking roads. The city was closed because PPP let it happen and becuase PTI is beig supported by the establishment. PMLn won fair and square and IK wants to topple an elected govt. This is the truth.

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