Dharna politics: Mixed response in Swabi to Imran’s volte-face

Investigation exposes PTI’s false claims over workers’ death

SWABI: The unfolding events in the federal capital had enough to keep everyone in the country on tenterhooks throughout Tuesday – a day before PTI chairman Imran Khan’s ‘million men’ rally was to take place – however, his calling off the ‘rally-cum-sit-in’ evoked mixed reaction among diehard party supporters in Swabi.

For it was mainly in the district where police in riot gear clashed with hundreds of PTI supporters heading for Islamabad on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway which the administration had blocked with shipping containers, concrete slabs and piles of mud.



At least 15 people were wounded in sporadic skirmishes between the PTI workers and law enforcers – police and the Frontier Constabulary – that continued throughout the day on Haroonabad bridge, located in Swabi district on the confluence of borders between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.



Khan retracted the much-trumpeted call to hold the sit-in aimed at ‘locking down’ the federal capital and forcing the prime minister to resign, after the Supreme Court asked the premier to submit a written response to allegations that members of his family were holding offshore bank accounts.

Some were jubilant over the announcement of celebrating ‘Youm-e-Tashakur’ (day of thanks) at Parade Ground instead of locking down the capital on Wednesday, while others dismayed over their party chairman’s ‘U-turn’.

Ahmad Ali, 28, who is a student and participated in the caravan marching towards Islamabad, told The Express Tribune that he welcomed the decision and will abide by the instructions of Khan.

However, he said the PTI chairman and decision-makers in the party should have done proper planning ahead of the planned lockdown.

“If they had planned to cancel the sit-in at that stage, then they shouldn’t have made the workers waste their time, clash with the police and brave teargas in the first place.”

Another worker at the Swabi basecamp, who spent Monday night at the Burhan interchange, said he was happy that the protest call had been taken back and the PML-N had been forced to surrender over the Panamagate scandal.

“Now, we will join our leader in celebrations with enthusiasm.”

Hairat Yousafzai from Lower Dir told The Express Tribune that his colleagues and he heard the announcement of the party’s change of plans halfway through to Swabi.



He added that their numbers were low because people were anticipating violence. “But now they will go to Islamabad in large numbers to celebrate the ‘victory’.”

Faking deaths

Meanwhile, an investigation done by The Express Tribune exposed that the senior leadership of the PTI had lied about the deaths of two party workers.

PTI’s regional leader and MPA Shah Farman told The Express Tribune on Tuesday that two party workers had died of excessive police shelling. He identified the one as Inamullah, a resident of Tehkal in Peshawar, who succumbed to his injuries in a hospital, adding the body of another worker was found in the bushes along the motorway in Swabi.

Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shaukat Yousafzai also told a section of the press that two party workers had died as a result of police shelling.

When this scribe reached the address of the deceased – Inamullah – in Daudzai village of Tehkal Payan, it turned out that the man in question was a patient of schizophrenia and had committed suicide.

One of the family members told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that Inam had been ill since 2005 and added that he committed suicide on October 21 at around 10am.

“We had rushed him to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, but he died on his way to the hospital.”

The hospital receipt of Inam, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, also showed that the patient had died before reaching the hospital.

The family member said the deceased and his family have nothing to do with any political party.

“Nor his relatives participated in the PTI’s protest in Swabi. We don’t even know what the people are doing in Swabi and what their plans were vis-à-vis the march towards Islamabad.”

An official in the Tehkal police station also confirmed to The Express Tribune that Inamullah had not died in Swabi as claimed by the PTI, but committed suicide.

When the MPA was asked by The Express Tribune in which hospital did the worker die, Farman said he had not received the details yet, but promised to confirm it after checking from his ‘sources’.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2016.