Staying put PTI strikes a responsive chord

LAHORE: While the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s leadership announced that it will wait till Muharram before taking its agitation to Islamabad, the lower tiers of the party are in for the long haul regardless of the outcome.

This isn’t the first time the party has launched a campaign against the PML-N government. Imran Khan had earlier mobilised workers after the 2013 general elections. On Friday, party workers seemed less obsessed with the nature of the party’s ‘next move’ and more with answering the call of their ‘leader’.

“He [Imran Khan] is honest. He speaks from the heart and that is what compels us to listen to him,” says Shahida Bano, a 50-year-old PTI supporter who made her way to the protest venue despite family resistance, fearing security.

Making her way from the residential area close to Bhuptian Chowk, Bano says this is the first time she has managed to take part in her leader’s protest. “I don’t care if they say this is not ‘legitimate’ in the political process. What other option do we have? Especially when those in power ignore the calls for justice? Where does the common man go?”

Party leaders claim with the PTI having managed to take up the Panamagate scandal at multiple platforms, including parliamentary and legal, resorting to street protests was an option they were forced to consider.

“Parliament is a restrictive forum for us considering our limited numbers there. Now, unless the government shows flexibility regarding the accountability legislation there is little room for the PTI to manoeuvre other than what it already is doing,” says a party leader, who adds that the party will continue on its path of agitation.

Former PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry says the Raiwind protest was aimed at increasing pressure on the government to start accountability as well as a warning to the government of a potential public uprising. The party has announced that it will go down that road after Muharram.

“We have achieved what we wanted to by bringing Raiwind in the public discourse,” he says. With the party having faced political isolation for this very decision, Chaudhry says the fact that people gathered ‘this close to the PM’s lavish residence’ is a testament that they want accountability.

In the aftermath of this isolation by the party’s otherwise opposition alliance, the PTI had taken up an aggressive stance towards the end with their chief saying that he would not plead before anyone to join a cause which was national -- and not personal.

Party sources say there was a lot of pressure on the party to ensure that the protest does not render weak in the number-game with the opposition, especially the Pakistan Awami Tehreek having also distanced itself.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur of the PAT had claimed that even the PTI was aware of the street power their party had, hinting towards it as being a loss for the latter that it failed to secure its support.

“With so many political parties out there, the PTI is the only one that is actually demanding justice. The silence of opposition parties for political point-scoring is shameful. What of the people? Who speaks for us?” asks Nawaz Akhtar, a PTI worker who came in from Model Town.

Satisfied with the course the party has set itself on, Akhtar blames the government for how the PTI is responding. “If I have to come out on the streets every time Imran Khan makes the call for us to get justice, I will…every single time.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2016.