It’s September 30: Unfazed Imran sets date for Raiwind show

Warns of swift response to rivals; keeps critics guessing about venue

ISLAMABAD: Unperturbed by the possibility of a confrontation with PML-N workers and dismissing reports of intra-party rifts, PTI Chairman Imran Khan announced on Sunday that he would lead his supporters in a march to Raiwind on September 30.

However, Imran did not disclose the precise venue of the protest. His party colleague, Dr Arif Alvi, said it would be finalised after working out ‘technical’ and ‘logistical’ aspects involved in managing a huge gathering like the Raiwind march. “It will be along the Raiwind Road, that’s for sure,” Alvi said.

Even the most cynical critics of the plan to march towards the Jati Umra residence of the Sharif family will be hard pushed to be unmoved by Imran’s pitch-perfect announcement that came during a workers’ convention held in the federal capital.

Before addressing the convention, Imran chaired a meeting of the PTI’s core committee at his residence in Bani Gala. “It will be the largest gathering in the country’s history. It is aimed at breaking the evil nexus between corruption and poll rigging,” the PTI chief told the convention.

As a warm-up exercise, he said, the PTI would start holding protest rallies across the country from September 24. In the face of below-expectation attendance at the PTI’s recent rallies in Islamabad and Karachi, the core committee mainly deliberated over ways to pull a maximum crowd on September 30.



“The September 30 rally will also be a litmus test for PTI’s leaders and activists. I will see who is loyal with the party and who is doing politics for personal gain,” Imran cautioned, adding there would be lodging arrangements for those who would reach the venue at night before September 30.

The core committee also decided that the PTI’s legal wing would approach the Lahore High Court to get permission for holding the rally.

Imran once again targeted the Sharif family, accusing the prime minister of rigging the 2013 general elections, destroying state institutions to cover up his corruption, and shoring up his accounts with the money earned through fraudulent means with a view to manipulate the 2018 elections.

“It’s a defining movement. Our countrymen have to decide if they are with the forces of the status quo or they are willing to liberate their future generations from the clutches of a corrupt ruling elite.”

The PTI chief said he had been criticised for holding the protest near the residence of the prime minister.

“Don’t you see people protesting in front of 10 Downing Street in Britain and the White House in America?” asked Imran, saying the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees him and his party the right to hold peaceful protests anywhere in the country.

“Raiwind is not someone’s father’s property. It is part of Pakistan,” he said, adding he had advised party office-bearers to raise funds to meet the expenses of the massive rally.

The PTI chief warned of a violent clash if anyone tried to create hurdles in the way of the protest march in a clear reference to the ‘Nawaz Sharif Janisar Force’ formed by PML-N workers.

Imran said the “PML-N goons and Punjab’s state machinery, including the police,” would get a befitting response from PTI workers should they resort to torture or any other unfair means to harass his party workers or try to stop them from reaching the protest venue.

He said he had been asking the prime minister for the last five months about the source of the income stashed in offshore companies, but instead of answering the questions he had been inaugurating projects.

The PTI chief said representatives of the status quo had been advising him to wait for the next general elections, but we will not wait and will continue to strive for a new Pakistan.

“Those who are advising us to wait for the next elections are indeed the beneficiaries of the prevailing system and these include politicians, businessmen, media houses, journalists, etc.”

Meanwhile, during the core committee meeting, it was decided that office-bearers in all regions of the country -- including AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan -- would be given targets in terms of bringing people to the venue of the protest.

Several committees would be formed to efficiently oversee the whole exercise. Dr Alvi said during core committee meeting it had also been decided to mend fences and to address ‘just’ reservations of ‘some’ party leaders.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2016.