Final touches: PTI gears up for solo Raiwind flight

Party to rely on its own street power as opposition reluctant to join

LAHORE: With the Raiwind rally finally scheduled for September 30, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is gearing up to make all-out efforts for its anti-government protest, relying on its own muscle for a successful march.

Though the party has been at the centre of much criticism not just from the government camp but also from the opposition alliance for holding the protest in Raiwind, the party seems determined to move ahead with its plan.

Party leaders have come out hard against the criticism saying that Raiwind, in its entirety, is not the property of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Criticism by the PTI leaders was also echoed in the party chief’s speech at the workers’ convention in Islamabad on Sunday in which he raised a similar point.



A strong proponent of the march, former PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry fails to understand the logic for disagreeing with the venue of the protest.

He said Raiwind was part of Lahore not the premier’s personal residence. “Morality is not the logic here. We are not protesting outside his [PM’s] house,” he said. Chaudhry said, however, the party understood the political symbolism attached to the area.

With the PTI yet to announce the exact venue of the march, the Adda plot located over three miles away from the palatial residential of Jati Umrah is most probable site with the party’s Punjab president Aleem Khan already visiting it before Eid. The venue had created a stir within the opposition alliance that said holding protests close to private residences of politicians would set a ‘wrong tradition’.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, who was part of the party’s Sunday meeting in Islamabad, said the venue would be announced on September 24 but internally the party had already made its decision.

The PTI has weighed up the opposition’s reluctance to be a part of the Raiwind rally and claims it is not reliant on other parties to make an impact.

Rasheed said the party was not focusing on forging alliances with the opposition at this stage given the reaction that has already come from those quarters. “We will do it on our own. We are relying on our own strengths, volunteers and workers,” he said.

The PTI has also sped up efforts to reach out to its workers in central Punjab, specifically the Lahore Division. While the party has yet to extend formal invitations to opposition parties, Rasheed says the party has a mass support, which is incomparable to not just the Tahirul Qadri-led Pakistan Awami Tehreek, but also the Pakistan People’s Party and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

“No one can challenge the street power of PTI. Imran Khan is a crowd puller,” Rasheed said, claiming the opposition’s absence from the rally would not make a huge difference. Meanwhile, PAT Secretary-General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur expressed complete ignorance over the Raiwind rally plan.

He said the PTI had not reached out to his party nor had clarified the nature of the protest. “It is premature to comment given that there is a lack of clarity over the issue,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2016.