PTI celebrates Nawaz’s ouster

Supporters worried about pending SC decision in Imran’s disqualification case; most participants from K-P.

ISLAMABAD: To celebrate  what can best be described as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s and Imran Khan’s greatest political victory, thousands of workers and supporters in a state of euphoria gathered at the Parade Ground to celebrate the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday.

Participants came on bikes, cars, vans, and buses from many districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and AJK.



Thousands of youngsters from the twin cities also thronged the parade ground for the public gathering  in the evening. Though a vast space of the parade ground was allocated for the rally, incoming crowds of youth and vendors had transformed the entire Expressway from Garden Flyover to Faizabad into a bustling, crowded marketplace.

Hundreds of policemen were deployed for security and traffic management at the venue and the Expressway but they struggled to maintain smooth flow of traffic and pedestrians at the road. Garden Flyover had also been partially shut for traffic.



The crowds, which mostly came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, started pouring into the parade ground after 5pm. By dusk, the venue was almost full with police saying the participants numbered around 10 thousand, 700 of them women. A separate enclosure was set up for women with around 900 chairs, while more than 10 thousand chairs were arranged in the men’s enclosure.

The main stage was set up over two-layers of shipping containers. It was flanked by two other similar stages for the media and VIP guests. More than a dozen trucks were parked across the audience loaded with loudspeakers. The electricity for the loudspeakers, lighting and big screens was supplied by several generators.



Policemen in plain clothes were deployed at the entry points for manual frisking of all the participants. Groups of youngsters on motorcycles carrying PTI flags and playing party songs also roamed on the Expressway and disrupted traffic at many points. Participants at the venue kept dancing to the beat of party songs. Hundreds of vendors of edibles, selfie sticks, and PTI merchandise also did brisk business at the venue and on the main Expressway.

Many PTI supporters said they were elated at the ousting of Nawaz Sharif, saying the credit for corruption investigations against Sharifs goes to Imran Khan. “I believe if Imran Khan is given a chance to form government, he will do a lot better than this lot,” said a PTI voter. However, he was also apprehensive of the possible disqualification of Khan and other politicians under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution. “Hardly anybody qualifies under these articles. Nobody is so pious,” he remarked.

PTI organisers had assured the authorities to wind up the event by 11pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2017.