Protest divides: PTI youth groups go back to holding separate sit-ins in Lahore

‘ISF announced their sit-in first and the IYW followed’.

LAHORE:

After a “lacklustre” joint protest demonstration by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Insaf Youth Wing and Insaf Students Federation at Liberty Chowk on Tuesday, the two wings decided to hold separate demonstrations on Wednesday, a PTI worker requesting anonymity said.

He said the party wings had parted ways, as far as holding sit-ins was concerned, over the question of which wing was more prominent at the demonstration.

On Wednesday, the Insaf Youth Wing gathered at Liberty Chowk for their sit-in while the Insaf Students Federation returned to Lalik Chowk in Defence Housing Authority, he said.

He said very few people were seen at Liberty Chowk on Tuesday because the residents of DHA did not want to go protest outside of Defence Housing Authority. Both PTI factions had extended invitations to office bearers and workers to join them, this was one of the reasons why the crowd was divided, he said.

There wasn’t much of a difference in the way the demonstrations at Liberty Chowk and Lalik Chowk were organised, he said. Party anthems were played at both protests and the protesters waved flags and chanted slogans.

IYW Information Secretary Waqas Aslam said a large number of PTI workers and office bearers joined the sit-in at Liberty Chowk. He said office bearers of the ISF had stayed away from the protest and had preferred to resume their sit-in at Lalik Chowk.

“Our demonstration at Liberty Chowk will continue till midnight on Wednesday,” he said. “Participants enjoy singing and dancing to party anthems. We get to listen to Imran Khan’s address live on big screens.”

He said Khan had directed Hamid Zaman, a PTI candidate in general elections, to arrange the sit-in at Liberty Chowk. Khan had called on all party workers and supporters to hold demonstrations to press the government to accept his demands, he said. “We requested the ISF to join our demonstration at Liberty Chowk and I have no idea why they are hesitant,” Aslam said.

Baber Hussain, a resident of DHA, who was at sit-in at Lalik Chowk said the residents of DHA had decided to hold a separate demonstration at Lalik Chowk “because participating in the Liberty Chowk demonstration was risky”.

He said the ISF had held their demonstration first and the ISF had announced theirs later. “I did not know that the IYW was holding a demonstration at Liberty Chowk... the number of participants at Lalik Chowk is pretty good,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.