‘Tsunami’ strategy: PTI to muster support via mass protests in Punjab, Karachi

May 25 rally in Faisalabad part of campaign.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has formed a new strategy against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz that is analogous to its ‘tsunami’ slogan – mobilising the party’s members, followers and supporters in the form of mass protests.

The public gathering on May 25, Sunday, is aimed at amassing the people of Punjab as “they are fed up with load-shedding, the rigged election, unemployment, etc.,” PTI Central Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari told The Express Tribune.

On that day, PTI will organise a massive protest rally that will gather at Dungi Ground, Faisalabad where Imran Khan will deliver his address. In June, the party will hold another public gathering in Gujranwala and then after Ramazan, in Lahore.

PTI’s senior leader Shafqat Mehmood said that the Faisalabad rally has two objectives: to sensitise people of the city about rigging and mobilise them for electoral reform. He said the party leadership will present its agenda at Faisalabad on Sunday.

After leading protests in central Punjab, the party’s chief, Imran Khan, would move to Karachi, informed Mazari. But why is PTI focused on central Punjab? “People of that area believe that their mandate was stolen by PML-N,” she replied.

The party’s protests in Islamabad on May 11 created tensions in Raiwind, she claimed. The Imran-led protests in central Punjab will force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to come out and implement electoral reforms.

There are loopholes in the current election rules and regulations. “Protesting is the only way to force PML-N to introduce electoral reforms and revamp the Election Commission of Pakistan,” she said.

The importance of Punjab

The think tank advising the party has recommended that Khan focus on central Punjab vis-a-vis the mass movement in order to see PML-N’s grip loosen in the province and Islamabad, and to revive PTI’s popularity in central Punjab.

The technocrats in the think tank that advises PTI argue that if Imran succeeds to move central Punjab in its favour, then there would be no hurdle in coming into power in Islamabad. If he fails to win over central Punjab, then the party can never hold the reins of power in the centre.

The plan

“PTI has planned its mass movement in Punjab in different phases,” said one of PTI’s senior leaders who is also member of the think tank that devised the strategy of mass movement.

PTI will focus on central Punjab until Eidul Fitr, after which it will stage a large-scale protest in Lahore. After Eidul Azha, the party will start a mass movement in South Punjab.

During the end of October or mid-December, the party will stage a rally in Karachi to attract its voters in the metropolis where it could only grab one National Assembly seat in the May 11, 2013 general election.

The parliament route

Another strategy employed by the PTI is to take almost all political parties in the lower house on board to join its two-point agenda i.e. revamp ECP and electoral reforms.

The party’s senior officials said they have proposed two names, MNAs Dr Arif Alvi and Shafqat Mehmood, as their representatives in the Parliamentary Committee, which the government would constitute to reform electoral laws and the ECP.

Separately, PTI officials said its three-member team – comprising bigwigs Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Tareen and Javed Hashmi – is working with different political parties to build consensus in parliament.

Pakistan’s Muslim League-Quaid leader Raja Basharat told The Express Tribune that PTI has sought their cooperation at the parliament on the abovementioned issues.

He said that PML-Q has proposed its Senator Kamil Ali Agha and MNA Tariq Bashir Cheema for the government’s Parliamentary Committee to push the two-point agenda as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2014.