PTI sit-in: Qadri may join protest at a later stage

PAT claims workers arrested from different parts of the country

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri is likely to join the Nov 2 sit-in called by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf but at a later stage.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, PAT representatives maintained that November 2 was not a deadline or conclusion but was merely the start of a protest demonstration against the current regime.



Leaders from the party stated that though it was PTI’s call to lock down Islamabad, the government had retorted to arresting PAT workers from different cities. PAT General Sectary Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said Qadri’s participation could not be ruled out.

PTI has announced a plan to lock down the capital territory on November 2 demanding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign following the revelation of his involvement in setting up offshore accounts.

“I wonder why people are taking the call of locking down Islamabad by PTI on November 2 as a major deadline. In fact it’s the start of a protest campaign and Dr Qadri may participate in it on later stages,” he said.

When inquired, he said PAT was not as involved in PTI’s protests as it was during 2014 but added that around 200 PAT workers participated in Sheikh Rasheed’s political show on October 28 in Rawalpindi at Committee Chowk. He said PAT workers also supported PTI in their recent demonstrations held in Jhang and Faisalabad.

“Three days are left before PTI’s demonstration on November 2 and things would become clearer after the apex court takes up the case on the Panama issue on November 1,” Gandapur stated adding that the federal government has blocked roads and made it impossible to get to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

He criticised the government’s crackdown on PAT workers and said that around 22 party activists have been arrested from Sargodha, Chakwal and Attock but nobody knows under what charges.



PAT’s Islamabad chapter president Advocate Ibrar Raza said that the workers could participate in the protest on an hour notice.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Sunni Tehreek believes that the government has failed to fulfil its constitutional responsibilities and besieging Shiekh Rasheed’s Lal Haveli is a political defeat for the incumbent government.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.