Red and green: PTI supporters look for change

Thousands turned out for Imran Khan’s rally at the Mazar-e-Quaid.

KARACHI:

Rehana Naz, 38, travelled all the way from Taleemi Bagh, changing three buses and walking for half an hour to hear the promises Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had to make to the people of Karachi at Bagh-e-Jinnah

"I have come here to find out what tabdeeli  (change) Imran Khan has in mind for us," said Naz, with hope in her eyes. "I want to ask him what tabdeeli  Karachiites will see if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns."

Disillusioned with the country's situation, the promise of change is what many of the thousands of people who turned out for the PTI rally at the Mazar-e-Quaid came for. Dadabhoy Nauroji Road and New MA Jinnah Road overflowed with cars, buses and motorcycles as PTI supporters thronged towards the venue to see and hear their leader and to register their protest against Nawaz's government.

Dozens of young men clambered up the trees near the stage from where Imran and other party leaders were delivering their speeches, trying to get a good view of the PTI chief. One tree became so overloaded with red-and-green-clad PTI supporters that it toppled over; luckily, no one was hurt.

Those who were a bit further from the stage craned their necks and swarmed up against the people in front of them, held back by PTI security teams and iron barriers. So great was the crowd that a container set aside for media cameramen and photographers was hard to reach.

PTI Karachi committee member Aftab Jahangiri and senior party leader Ashraf Qureshi pleaded with the participants of the rally to step back from the stage and the poles supporting the disco lights. "Please move away from the poles and the sound system or they will stop working," Jahangiri requested from the stage. "Security, please push people back from the lights and the sound system." Ladies made themselves comfortable on the right side of the road, while the men moved to the left. From People ‘s Chowrangi to Guru Mandir and Teen Hatti, a sea of red and green stretched as far as the eye could see, with almost everyone present waving a party flag or sporting caps, face paint or stickers of 'Go Nawaz Go'. DJ Butt played Sindhi singer Ahmed Mughal's Jea Sindh Jea Sindh Wara Jean, rousing the crowd to fever pitch.

Scores of policemen armed with batons, AK-47s and MP-5s guarded the rally while PTI volunteers checked all those who entered the venue. Two police sniffer dogs, a Labrador and a German Shepherd, were tied to the grills of Mazar-e-Quaid behind the stage, panting after a day spent sweeping the area with the bomb disposal squad. When the security personnel went off for lunch, some of the rally's participants tossed pebbles and wrappers at them.

"I am tired of watching the faces of the same rulers," said 66-year-old Abdur Rasheed, a resident of Qasba who drove to the rally on his 1980 model motorcycle. A popcorn seller, Rasheed quit a political party and joined PTI after Imran's rally at the same venue in December 2011.

Electrical engineer Amjad Ali sat in his wheelchair on the men's side, having driven from SITE Two on his four-wheeled motorcycle. "I am here because I agree with Imran's ideology and thinking," he said, explaining his presence at his first ever political rally. "There are flaws in our system, but if we get sincere leaders, we can perform marvels."

Ali was paralysed in a bomb blast at an imambargah in Peshawar's Qissa Khawani in 2007, and came to the rally with his wife Razia and little daughter Aima Zehra. "Imran Khan is the only hope for our country," he said. "Even Musharraf, a dictator, was better than the present government of Nawaz Sharif."

Cricketer Mohsin Hasan Khan told the participants that they would free the country from corrupt rulers. "Imran is my friend," he declared. "He worked for our cricket and now he is working for our country." As he spoke, the slogans started up again and he joined in too, shouting 'Go Nawaz Go'.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2014.