Sit-in stakes: PTI expects great turnout today if govt doesn’t interfere

Protest to take place outside the port gates in the afternoon.

KARACHI:

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members said that security measures are in place for the party’s dharna in Karachi on Saturday, but fool-proof security for a “mega event” can never be guaranteed.

PTI chief Imran Khan said his supporters would continuously sit outside the port’s gate from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening to block the trucks carrying Nato supplies. The party has made arrangements with the police and Rangers and men and women will be checked personally by PTI members at the gates.

“If there is no interference from the government,” said PTI women’s wing south president Sadia Agha excitedly, “there will be a great turnout at the dharna.” She added, however, that mobile phones used by PTI members to circulate mass text messages inviting supporters had been blocked a week ago by the government. She said that reports of incorrect timings were being spread in the media to dissuade people from attending.

But despite these difficulties, Agha is hopeful that the sit-in against drone strikes will be a success. She said that members have distributed over 20 million flyers and are anticipating a large crowd.

20 minutes with Imran Khan

I was ushered up the stairs of the spacious Palwal House on Gizri Avenue, and after being momentarily distracted by the outdoor swimming pool, I noticed cameramen with their TV crew walking inside the house casually as party members bustled in and out, clearly preoccupied.

In a tiny room full of people on the first floor, PTI chief Imran Khan was seated on a swivelling, high-backed chair behind a big wooden desk. He smiled briefly as I walked into the room, but his attention was subsequently garnered by an earnest TV reporter who wanted a one-minute interview.

After scrolling on his BlackBerry for two minutes, he looked up, ready to answer my questions.

I asked him to confirm a report published in Pakistan Today that claimed the PTI had joined the Jamaat ud Dawa and Jamaat-e-Islami in calling Osama bin Laden a “martyr of Islam”. Imran vehemently denied this report, saying it was a deliberate attempt to malign his party, as the PTI has never supported anyone who causes terrorism. “I am often made out to be the naughty boy who supports the Taliban,” said Imran, clarifying that his ideology has always been to conduct dialogue with militants, not support terrorism.

He was effervescent as he spoke about Saturday’s dharna against drone strikes, which he highlighted as the primary reason behind suicide bombings in Pakistan, the second being military operations in the north.

“What started first?” he asked emphatically, his voice crisp and his body language assertive. “Terrorism in Pakistan is a reaction to drone strikes and military operations; suicide bombings are a tool of the weak used to attack oppressors.”

He admitted that it was this stance that earned him the notorious title of “Taliban Khan” and that he was aware that “America-loving poodles” label him “the naughty boy who supports the Taliban.”

Imran firmly reiterated his party’s philosophy that drones and military action are not going to end terrorism, adding that the US government’s involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is what caused the problem. He criticised politicians who he believes compromise Pakistan’s sovereignty, calling them “the hired guns of America” who he believes are fascists disguised as liberals.

He said his solution was straightforward: that the government end the war in the tribal areas and engage the 30 odd Taliban groups present there in dialogue. “We need to separate the terrorists from the civilians and stop the ruthless slaughter of innocent Pakistanis,” he concluded as he swiveled on his chair and turned his attention to another gentlemen who had waited patiently in the room for an interview.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.