PTI’s rally strategy still in flux

PTI leaders questioned the lack of clarity surrounding the planned September 27 Islamabad march during a late-night joint core and political committee meeting of the PTI on Wednesday, where K-P Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, tasked with leading the party’s street movement, was once again conspicuously absent.

Sohail Afridi, however, announced through the party secretary general another meeting for Thursday morning in Islamabad, bringing together PTI MNAs, MPAs and ticket holders. The announcement came despite objections to the short notice, with some party members seeking to defer the meeting to September 16 to coincide with Imran Khan’s Supreme Court hearing. The party leadership, however, retained the original date and time.

According to sources, more than three dozen PTI leaders and office-bearers attended the party’s joint core and political committee meeting, held online late Wednesday night. However, K-P Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and members of his team were conspicuously absent from the meeting.

According to two leaders who attended the meeting, no concrete decision could be reached because the key figure behind the plan, K-P Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, was absent. One of the leaders said the plan was Afridi’s brainchild and had been announced by him, rather than PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, so the answers to the questions raised could only come from the chief minister himself.

A PTI leader told The Express Tribune that each member was given only two to three minutes to speak during the approximately two-hour meeting.

He said many participants had hoped to learn what the party actually sought to achieve through the September 27 activity. They also wanted clarity on the destination and the party’s next course of action if the march reached Islamabad.

He said many participants had also hoped to hear about the party’s contingency plan and exit strategy. So far, however, the impression he and his colleagues had gathered was that everyone was simply following the KP chief minister’s lead without a clear understanding of the plan.

He said Barrister Gohar’s remarks offered little indication of any breakthrough on the dialogue front. He expressed concern that the KP chief minister could end up leading the party into a blind alley.

Another leader said that, according to his understanding, the KP chief minister would lead party workers from Peshawar, its adjoining areas and Malakand on September 27. The procession would later be joined by a rally from Hazara, while Gandapur would lead a separate rally from southern KP towards Islamabad via the CPEC route.

He said the party was not expecting a massive turnout on September 27. He added that Punjab was unlikely to draw large crowds given what he described as the oppressive political environment in the province.

He said party leaders would try to seek further answers from the KP chief minister at Thursday morning’s meeting in Islamabad.

“Maybe he has something in store that we don’t know about,” he said.

He said the KP chief minister should, in principle, have attended Wednesday night’s meeting, as it was an apex committee meeting of the party and its agenda centred on his plan. The chief minister had also skipped a joint meeting convened after the plan was first announced, he added.