A YEAR IN POLITICS AUG 2014: PTI problems

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan announced in May a series of protest demonstrations against alleged electoral rigging.

The party arranged public meetings in Islamabad, Sailkot, Fasialabad and Bahawalpur demanding that the government order a judicial probe into the rigging. Khan led an Azadi March to Islamabad on August 14 to achieve what he called a new Pakistan.

Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri also announced an Inqilab March on the same date. The PTI introduced the ‘Go Nawaz Go’ slogan that remained the focus of its protest campaign. Several rounds of talks between the government and the protesting parties failed to end the standoff. Qadri ended his sit-in two months later. He then went abroad saying that he wanted to raise funds to reorganise the party.

Khan took his protest to other parts of the country calling for shut down of major cities. In Faisalabad a PTI activist, Haq Nawaz, was shot dead during clashes with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supporters. The PTI also put up an impressive show in Karachi. Khan called off the protest campaign after 143 people, including 133 children, were killed in a terrorist attack on Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16.

Read the full year-in review here.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.