Power show: PTI all set to kick off mass contact drive today

PPP leader Ghulam Murtaza Satti jumps ship

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is all set to kick off its mass contact drive aimed at forcing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down in the face of pending investigations against him and his family members in the Panamagate case from Islamabad on Friday.

The party will show its power at the Parade Ground by organising a rally which will be addressed by its chairman Imran Khan for which all arrangements had been finalised.

Khan inspected the preparations for the rally by visiting the venue on Thursday night. He was supposed to talk to the media but could not do so due to mismanagement owing to the presence of party workers.

He was only asked one question that the PML-N had decided to initiate legal course of action against him for levelling Rs10 billion bribe allegations. To that Khan replied: “It was just an initial offer (Rs10 billion) that was supposed to be raised further."



The theme of the mass contact drive is ‘Manzil Qareeb Hay’.

According to organisers, before Khan’s address –- scheduled at 9pm -– the excerpts of the verdict of the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Panamagate case would be aired in Urdu.

While, a short documentary prepared by the PTI’s media wing showing the ‘tales of corruption’ of the Sharif family will also be telecast before Khan’s speech.

It is the same Parade Ground where the PTI had staged its last big gathering on November 2 – the Thanksgiving Rally – organised after the party called off its Islamabad lockdown plan in the wake of the Supreme Court’s announcement to take up the Panamagate case.

Now, Khan will reinitiate his party’s protest drive from the same ground. After Islamabad’s rally, the PTI will hold at least six such rallies in different cities before Ramazan. The second rally will be held in Karachi on April 30 [Sunday], in Nowshera on May 5, Abbotabad on May 12. Rallies would also be organised in Attock, Quetta and Lahore.



Satti joins PTI

PPP president from the Rawalpindi Division Ghulam Murtaza Satti on Thursday announced his joining the PTI after the last-ditch effort made by some PPP leaders to retain the loyalty of a party stalwart from the Potohar region had failed.

Satti’s decision to join the PTI will not only dent the PPP – which is already in deep trouble in Punjab in terms of its sinking popularity – but will also pose a daunting challenge for the ruling PML-N whose candidate from the constituency, NA-50, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, had always been in a tight race with Satti for over one-and-a-half decades.

Satti called on the PTI chairman at his Bani Gala residence to announce his support for the PTI. Senior party leaders including Jehangir Khan Tareen, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Amir Kiyani were also present on the occasion.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Satti said he would inform the reasons behind his joining the PTI on Friday during a press conference.



Satti was made PPP Rawalpindi Division president by party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in 2017.