Mass mobilisation: Workers’ conventions from Sunday says Ejaz

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders will exhort workers and encourage them to work hard for Azadi March.

LAHORE:

The Punjab chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announced that they would hold a series of workers’ conventions, starting Sunday, to mobilise them for the Million-Man Azadi March scheduled for August 14.

PTI president Javed Hashmi, vice chairperson Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Punjab chapter president Ejaz Chaudhry will address these conventions and exhort party workers to gather participants for the march.

Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that this would be the final mass mobilisation campaign for the Azadi March that will be carried out from Lahore to D Chowk in Islamabad. He said the demonstration will continue till the government ceded to party chief Imran Khan’s demands that he will make in his address at D Chowk.

He said the workers’ conventions will start from August 3. Two conventions will be held that day, one in Lahore and the other in Talagang (in Chakwal district). He said Hashmi and Quershi will address the workers and assign them duties for the march.

On August 6, conventions will be organised in Gujjar Khan, Taxila, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin. “These meetings will continue in various districts till August 11,” he said.

On August 13, party workers and supporters from areas near the Grand Trunk Road will set up camps along the road to facilitate participants and greet the protesters led by Imran Khan.

“Camps will be established at every five kilometres. Party workers will play the national anthem and party songs to encourage people to join the march,” said Chaudhry.

In a press statement, Chaudhry said the government’s days were numbered. There is overwhelming anti-Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) sentiment among the people, he said. “They are tired of the government’s anti-people policies.”

He said the PTI would present solid evidence of election rigging, fraud and PML-N’s terrible performance on the day of the Azadi March.

The fact that the government had to impose Article 245-C in Islamabad showed just how terrified it was that it would lose its mandate, Chaudhry said.

The PTI’s Youth Wing, under its president Zubair Khan Niazi, has finalised arrangements to ensure maximum participation at the Azadi March, Niazi said. In a meeting held on Friday, Niazi assigned district presidents various duties to lead protesters and mobilise people for the march.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2014.