Azadi March: Imran says Friday will be a decisive day

PTI workers also clash with police in front of the PM Secretariat.

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday set the tone for another confrontation with the government on September 19, claiming that the upcoming date would prove decisive in his campaign to dislodge Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“Gather at D-Chowk on Friday (September 19) in large numbers,” Imran asked his supporters, whose numbers had fallen on Monday from last week’s high. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will remain restless after Friday’s gathering,” he added.

He also reiterated his resolve not to abandon his sit-in until he secured the PM’s resignation. “We will celebrate our Eid here and will not budge until we achieve our destiny,” he said.

Addressing Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, Imran Khan said he gave his guarantee for peace as chief of the PTI. “I guarantee you that we will not leave until Nawaz Sharif quits but I assure you that we will remain peaceful,” he said.

Imran said his party’s 33-day-long historic sit-in was a ray of hope for the common man. He reiterated his commitment to expose all those who were allegedly involved in rigging the 2013 elections.

The PTI chief claimed the meteorological department had issued a flood warning on August 6 and it was not a sudden calamity, as portrayed by the government. Yet, he said, the government  was caught unawares.

Recalling his visit to the flood-ravaged areas, he said  people there informed him that the government was building a bridge just for Nawaz Sharif’s Ramzan sugar mill. He alleged the government had breached dykes and flooded huge areas just to save the mills.

“Farmers also complained that Ramzan sugar mill did not pay them for their sugar cane for one year and now it was paying only 70% of the agreed price,” he said, adding that everyone in flood-hit areas was chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’.

According to him, de-centralisation is  one of the basic components of democracy. “But the [federal] government is not giving small provinces their due share,” he added.

He cited as an example the federal government’s reluctance  to allow the PTI-led provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkwa to produce electricity through hydro-power generation, “in spite of the fact that it is eco-friendly and cheap”.

“In 2005, Pakistan was ranked 34 on Failed State Index but today we are ranked 10,” he said. Justifying his action to secure the release of his workers from police custody on Sunday, he said the police had no authority to arrest peaceful protesters. “I ask the chief justice under which law were the PTI supporters detained?”

PTI workers clash with police

Frontier Corps (FC), Rangers and armed forces personnel came into action after PTI workers attacked police officials deputed on duty in the high security Red Zone area in front of the Prime Minister Secretariat in early hours of Tuesday.

PTI workers, carrying stick and stones, attacked police apparently following the arrest of some party workers who had participated in the sit-in. The attack came after Imran Khan’s speech, in which he had asked his workers to give a tough time to police if they took any action against them.  A police official claimed that some policemen were injured in clashes with political workers, among whom were some PAT activists.

In view of the situation, armed forces also started patrolling the Constitution Avenue. Later, Rangers and FC personnel convinced the protesters to not target the police. Media persons were also stopped by the protesters. “We are threatened for live coverage,” a TV reporter said. Later, Imran Khan ordered his workers to come back to the sit-in venue. Announcements were still being made from the PTI container till the filling of this report.

“Shameful atrocities of Punjab police behaving like Nawaz Sharif’s slaves, harassing our innocent supporters, will not be tolerated anymore,” the PTI’s leader Naz Baloch tweeted

Qadri takes back his call

PAT chief Tahirul Qadri withdrew his call for defacing currency notes with the slogan“Go Nawaz Go”. “After the statement of the State Bank governor, I take back my call in keeping with the law,” he said. Qadri appealed to the people to spread the slogan on social media and through text messages.

No response received: JI chief

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq said the opposition jirga had given its suggestions to government and protesting parties for a respectable way out of the political crisis but neither side had given a reply so far.

Talking to media in Lahore, he said the jirga wanted the parties to sort out the issues through dialogue. Haq said even if the sit-in continued for another 100 days, no harm should come to the Constitution and the democratic system. “We don’t want anybody to add fuel to the fire,” he said. “We are not a party to the issue, instead we are striving for a solution,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2014.