ISLAMABAD: On the third day of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Azadi march in the federal capital, the marchers took a sigh of relief as the organisers made arrangements to turn their sit-in venue a little congenial for them.
From the day one, it was noticed that arrangements at Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s (PAT)’s Inqilab rally – camped at a few hundred yards’ distance on a parallel road in Aabpara – were far better than that of the PTI rally. Even the PTI chief Imran Khan had acknowledged this fact.
During his 3:00am speech on Sunday, Imran Khan had announced to make proper arrangements, work on which started early in the morning. The first change at the PTI rally was arrival of chairs. The marcher were later also provided food.
The protesters have braved heavy rain in the last two days and in view of the weather conditions, a shelter – in the shape of large canopies – was installed on one side of the road at the tail of the rally.
The old stage was also moved and parked at roadside to block one side of the road as a new stage – a 40-foot long container having many features, including an air-conditioned apartment-cum-conference room – was brought in.
On Sunday, the PTI gathering also snowballed as people from the twin cities came out to listen to the ‘most important speech of PTI chief Imran Khan’. New faces from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) were also visible in the rally.
The people of the K-P were the first to reach the federal capital under the leadership of the K-P chief minister. But a majority of those who had been present during the first two days have already gone back home.
The number of marchers was high in front of the newly installed stage. However, the number was expected to plummet as several families – including women and children – started to return after nightfall.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th,2014.
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@Azmat: I think you missed my point. In order for the people to support IK, he should talk about "Missing Persons", Feudal System, getting out of American war on terror. These are the issues affecting common man in Pakistan. Remember the devastating taken place by US Drone Strikes and Army operations. Million refugees are the result of carrying out the diktat from Washington. Just saying and talking about Nawaz Sharif will not have any impact.
@Azmat: Imran Khan needs a massive therapy to modify his spoilt thought process and expectations. He makes very little sense in his speeches. His strength comes from his hope that all he needs to do is to ignite the atmosphere resulting in voilence and army take over. People like you who believe he is capable of turning Pakistan's fate are idiots. Can not you see what little he has achieved in KPK? Nothing.
The way he is trying to topple NS government will come back to bite him ....he will find no where to hide.
And one does not even want to talk about Qadri who is making us feel sick about him. He can be best described as a constipated monkey who, from time to time, returns to relieve himself on Pak soil with an uncontrolled oral diarrhoea. Like IK his demands make no sense.
@Shaikh Mohommad: You do not get these kind of health facilities over nite or by speech only. Laws are passed and negotiated in the parliament.look at the example of Obama care in USA. Nothing is free in this world. One has to pay , one way or the other.he should let the parliament members work on it by presenting a bill. That will be the right way and not asking for resignation of prime minister. On the other hand. Mr Qadri is an anarchist and beyond the hope. He is 63 yrs old guy( born in 1951)with no hope of return to common sense.
@Shaikh Mohommad: This is because NS is the main hurdle in IK's plans. the so called democrats, Zardari, Altaf, Asfandyar are coming togeather to "Save" the Kleptocracy of Nawaz and Zardari. As on IK's part, he is doing a great job in KP by modernising and depolticising the police, land revenue, health and education. He has taken exemplary steps to clean the police - something that Sharif brothers could not do having remained incharge of panjab for nearly two decades. Every one knows that Sindh police is full of either PPP or MQM loyalists. Same goes for Panjab police but no one can point a finger at IK for inducting his own people in to police or using it for politicial gains or against his opponents. Its a shame that our people focus on what IK ate for breakfast, IK left the dharna in the rain, Ik arrived late to the dharna, IK slept at home, IK;s crowd was not much etc etc. No one is focusing on the fact that he has been asking for verifying votes in 4 constituencies , a demand that is more then justified given the history of our elections. If you corner someone to the extreme that no law, no instituition in the country is there to give him justice, he is bound to resort to take extreme measures. Our people have such short memories that they even forget what the Sharif brothers have been doing to them in the name of democracy and even the educated one are not exempted form this. A person is caught on tape talking to a sitting judge and asking for favours for someone but we still tolerate it and he becomes the CM of the largest province. Bear in mind that SS has never dquestioned the authenticity of the tape where he is heard talking to Justice Qayyum. And by the way Justice Qayyum was also made attorney general after that. We love Zardari coz he is a "Good" politician and knows how to con people. How skillfully he managed to complete his term of 5 years in the office. But is this whats going to take pakistan out of this quagmire? You can write a million columns in favour of NS and SS defending their right to stay in power for 5 years as they have come through elections, but that does not change the facts that they are basically thieves and thugs who have been looting the country and amassing billions and syphoning it off to foreign accounts. you can keep defending them that nothing has been proven against them, but that does not change the fact that the country has gone from bad to worse in their tenures but their properties have gone from good to excellent. But it seems we only need and deserve the gullu butts to keep giving us the dose of slavery morning afternoon and evening every day.
The marches that are taking place have a personal agenda i.e. they are all against Nawaz Sharif. Pakistanis are more interested in abolition of feudal system, coming out of "American war on terror" and giving a common man a decent place to live and work. Has Imran Khan forgotten his speech in Karachi promising a free health system to everyone akin to the one existing in UK? In UK under NHS, every person is treated free of cost in hospital around the UK. All hospitals in UK are under the control of British Government. Wake up Imran Khan and give something concrete to people and tell them NOW what you will give them.