Monday shutdown: PML-N advises workers not to confront PTI

Party leaders ask MNAs, MPAs to restrain workers.

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarians from Lahore have been directed by the party leadership to restrain party workers from confronting the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers on Monday.

Out of a total of 13 National Assembly seats from Lahore, 12 were won by PML-N in the 2013 elections. Shafqat Mahmood of the PTI won the remaining seat.

Out of the 25 Punjab Assembly seats in the city, the PTI had bagged three, while PML-N won 22.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique were elected to the National Assembly from Lahore.

“We have been told not to confront PTI activists if they block roads. Imran Khan has announced a bid to shut down the city. But we will not do anything to stop them (PTI). The administration will fulfill its responsibility,” Muhammad Riaz Malik, MNA from Shahdra, told The Express Tribune.



Mehar Ishtiaq Ahmad, another PML-N MNA, said that Lahore was a large and busy city. He said that the closure of a major road might lead to traffic jams that could go on for hours. “We will not take to the streets. We will let them (PTI) protest. There will be no repeat of a Faisalabad-like incident,” he said.

He said that the shutdown would be damaging for the country’s economy. “Traders are not willing to close their shops. However, when an unruly mob threatens businessmen, they may have no other option,” he said.

Chaudhry Shahbaz Ahmad, an MPA from Lahore, said that the PML-N would give “a free-hand” to PTI workers. “We have told our workers not to come to roads. We have also told our traders’ wing not to risk a clash. If PTI workers try to forcibly shut down the businesses or misbehave with people, the police and the administration will deal with them,” he said.

Former law minister Rana Sanaullah said that Lahore had a population of 10 million. “If as many as five to 10 per cent of Lahoris are on the street, the PTI will have the right to claim their call is success. If people do not step out of their houses on December 15 to avoid violence, that will not mean they support the PTI,” he said.

Punjab government’s spokesman Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri said the PTI shutdown would deprive the poor of an opportunity to earn their livelihood. “The daily-wage workers and their families have to go to sleep on an empty stomach every time there is such a strike. The government has so far spent more than Rs7 billion on providing security for PTI sit-ins,” he said.

Qadri said that traders of Lahore had proved their patriotism by deciding not to observe a strike on Monday. “Such strikes have caused a loss of Rs800 billion to the national economy. Imran Khan’s real agenda is to ruin the economy. The strike in Karachi caused a loss of Rs80 billion to the economy. If Imran Khan is serious about talks, why is his party continuing the strikes?” he asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.