‘PTI won’t budge an inch’

Party adamant to hold rally at Minar-e-Pakistan despite ban

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has rejected the Lahore deputy commissioner’s suggestion to hold its power show at Nasir Bagh instead of a gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan.

PTI Central Punjab President Abdul Aleem Khan announced that the senior leadership of the party has decided to hold its mammoth public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan on April 29 and it would not accept any other option. He pointed out that it was a historic venue as the Resolution of Pakistan was presented there in 1940. “Several political and religious parties, including PTI, have held their public gatherings and rallies at Minar-e-Pakistan in the past. But now, all of a sudden, the government is trying to bar PTI from holding its public gathering here,” Khan remarked.

He asked the government officers not to accept the political pressure of the ruling party. “PTI has a history of holding peaceful public gatherings. The party believes in rule of law and the Constitution. It will try to ensure the safety and sanctity of the historic venue,” he underlined.



The PTI leader said the ruling PML-N should refrain from using, what he termed, ‘ugly tactics’. “It is the political and democratic right of all the parties to hold public gatherings and spread their message to the masses. PTI Chairman Imran Khan has struggled for the past 25 years to spread his message. “Now the time has come to make his dream materialise. No political party has the power to stop him,” he said.



He said the ruling party cannot stop the April 29 public gathering by creating hurdles. “It (the government) will fail in its nefarious designs. The city administration should keep in mind that the rulers are left with only a few weeks in power. Instead of flattering the rulers, they should make foolproof security arrangements for April 29 public meeting.”

“PTI’s previous public gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan,” he said, “had perturbed the leaders of the ruling party. The upcoming PTI public meeting will put the last nail in PML-N’s coffin on April 29.”

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the spokesman for the Lahore deputy commissioner said the government had already informed the PTI leadership that the Cabinet Committee for Law and Order had barred all types of political and religious public gatherings at Mina-e-Pakistan for safety and security reasons. He said the government would tackle the situation as per the provisions of the law if the PTI tried to hold its public gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan.

He pointed out that authorities had recently spent over Rs2 billion in revamping of the Greater Iqbal Park and renovated the historic monument. “Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has just inaugurated the National History Museum this Tuesday. The government cannot allow any political party to hold its public gathering at the historic venue and ruin the beauty of the recently developed public theme park,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2018.