Shaken but undeterred PTI rethinks strategy

ISLAMABAD: At a marathon consultative session inside Imran Khan’s plush mansion in Bani Gala on Friday, a senior leader in carefully chosen words spoke about the government’s crackdown on PTI that tellingly coincided with a huddle between the ruling functionaries and the army chief on Thursday. For him, the timing of the two events was a matter of concern. However, an insider claimed that the debate fizzled out shortly after it started.

An interesting argument during the debate was that if the army chief’s meeting with top PML-N leaders concluded at 5:30pm on Thursday and the government initiated the crackdown on PTI between 6 and 6:30pm, was the army chief taken into confidence? The question, a source claimed, remained unanswered during the meeting.



Life returned to normal in Islamabad on Friday, but the scenic Bani Gala area, on the edge of the federal capital, remained abuzz with activity. The PTI chairman and his senior aides preferred to remain indoors fearing possible arrest.

Only residents and media persons were allowed to enter Bani Gala – that too after proving their identity at a police checkpoint erected Thursday night at the entrance to the narrow Korang Road, which leads to Bani Gala where Khan’s mansion is located.

Droves of PTI supporters who came to visit Imran’s residence were sent back from the checkpoint. Those who tried to make a forced entry were detained but released later on.

Three checkpoints dotted the approximately five kilometre stretch of the snaking Korang Road leading to Imran’s residence. Islamabad police and Frontier Constabulary personnel manned the checkpoints. However, some 300 diehard activists managed to make their way into Imran’s residence after trekking the uncharted hilly tracks.

Within a 300-yard radius of the Bani Gala residence, the PTI chief’s personal security staff and volunteers stood alert. No one was allowed near the mansion without an invitation from the leaders present inside.

Around 5pm, Imran made his first appearance, addressed media persons and supporters gathered some 200 yards away from his house, and went back inside.

PTI revises its strategy

The government on Friday appeared successful in its strategy to contain Imran and his top aides from interacting with public. “Avoid arrests,” Imran advised PTI leaders and activists following an almost four-hour-long consultative meeting that while reviewing its strategy in the face of the government’s crackdown concluded that “the PTI would not distract from its November 2 sit-in plan at any cost”.

“Initiation of mega crackdown well before November 2 is a deliberate act of the government to sidetrack us,” senior PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari said while talking to The Express Tribune. She said the PTI would not fall into that trap by offering arrests before scheduled protest.

“The leadership has been asked to not go in public to attend mass mobilisation rallies, especially in Punjab and Islamabad, and plan carefully for November 2,” another senior leader said.

If the PTI leaders are to believe, then the party is expected to offer no resistance to the law enforcement agencies before November 2. Due to this change is strategy, Khan did not attend a planned protest in Rawalpindi on Friday.

The meeting also decided that Khan would personally attend the Supreme Court’s proceedings on Panamagate case on November 1. However, no decision has yet been made in the backdrop of the Islamabad High Court order which directed the PTI chief to appear on October 31 in a petition filed against the capital lockdown plan.

Imran Khan’s speech

Talking to media outside his residence, Imran once again targeted the Sharif brothers, saying their time to go to jail was fast approaching. Imran, who is virtually under house arrest, said his party’s original plan was for November 2, which he said was unchanged.

“The Islamabad High Court ordered the government to not barricade public thoroughfares, then why am I surrounded? Is this your democracy?”

Imran said that in democratic countries, an independent judiciary protects the rights of the common man. “You have put me under house arrest now, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me; it doesn't matter to our workers. We will come back even stronger.”

“The judiciary protects their human rights, their democratic rights. So I ask again; what kind of a democracy is this?” he said and in the same breath added that it’s democracy of Nawaz Sharif who was groomed in the lap of a military dictator.



Imran asked the Punjab police to not follow the illegal and unconstitutional orders of the Sharif brothers by not torturing peaceful political activists.

Talking about November 2 plan, Imran said the government would witness the real power of the nation that day. Imran accused the government of flagrantly violating the Islamabad High Court orders by erecting roadblocks. “I will request court to witness who is shutting down the twin cities. It’s not the PTI but the government,” he said, adding that the PML-N had a history of disrespecting courts. Imran declared his residence as PTI’s planning centre and headquarters.

As he concluded his speech, some 300 charged activists rising slogans made their way back. However, at Imran Khan Chowk on Korang Road they came face to face with the law enforcers. Protesters threw stones and bricks at police who retaliated and fired teargas shells. Some arrests were also made by police.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2016.