Women dance to music at Adda Plot hours before the PTI’s rally actually started with the arrival of Imran Khan. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
The sights and sounds at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Raiwind March gave the impression people had gathered for a festival rather than seek accountability from the ruling elite.
The rally turned into a carnival when participants started dancing to the beats of drums with their faces painted in colours of the party’s flag at Adda Plot. Even people with disabilities made their way from far-off areas to participate in the protest, some joining the cause from Peshawar and Sialkot.
Many youngsters from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and even the US, calling themselves Imran’s tigers, pitched in. The programme was not scheduled to start until dusk but many activists and enthusiasts had arrived hours earlier.
End to corruption
Most participants attended the rally to raise their voices against corruption.
“We just need [to put an end to] corruption,” said Amir Shaukat, a resident of Hyderabad who was seen painting faces of PTI supporters for between Rs20 and Rs30.
Waqar Ahmed, a Chakwal resident, reached the venue by 2:30pm. By late afternoon, the sizzling heat had made it unbearable for people to remain outdoors. But Waqar’s enthusiasm and dedication to Imran surpassed all other consideration and he was seen around the stage area for a long time. “If Imran Khan orders us to hold a sit-in here until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [gives in], we will do it,” he said
Clad in a black burqa, Ghazal Ihsaan, a resident of Mazang, was seen chewing paan and gutka. “I came here with my husband on a motorcycle,” she said. A housewife and mother of five, Ghazal knows little about politics. “But [I] want to abolish corruption as it is [destroying] our country,” she said. “We heard Imran on television and thought we should join his rally.”
Naseem Cheema, who was also part of this group, told The Express Tribune that she was settled in the US with four children and had come to Pakistan to attend the rally all by herself to raise voice against corruption. “Two of them are doctors and the other two engineers,” she said talking about her kids. “But they have not been able to get jobs in Pakistan. We had to shift to the US due to massive corruption in Pakistan.”
For the sake of change
Shamraiz Khan, a person with disabilities from Peshawar, said he was not worried about facing hurdles on his way to Adda Plot as he was looking forward to standing with the party chief.
Sufian from Sialkot said he was there for the sake of “change”. He added he wanted to tell people sitting inside their houses that he was a person with disabilities but was still present for the rally event.
“Imran Khan is talking for Pakistan, not to become the prime minister of the country which different television channels have been portraying.” Some of the young people were dancing to DJ Wali Sons’ song specially composed for the Raiwind march, while the youth from Peshawar performed the unique dance of their region – Attan.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2016.
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