Renewed focus: PTI picks Lahore over Islamabad for rally

Imran says party will hold a public demonstration on October 9

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf hastily drew up plans on Tuesday for an alternative rally in Lahore on October 9 after the Islamabad administration vetoed their D-chowk protest against the Election Commission (ECP).

The rally will be held barely two-days ahead of the by-elections in the NA-122 constituency.

“We have decided not to give up and hold a rally in Lahore on October 9, as we know the government wanted to put us on a collision course and shift the responsibility [for untoward incidents] on us,” PTI chairman Imran Khan told a news conference at his Bani Gala residence.



Imran’s party had planned to stage a rally in front of the ECP offices in Islamabad on October 4, demanding resignations of ECP members and provincial commissioners. Later, it had modified its plan to stage a demonstration at D-chowk, owing to space constraints. But the Islamabad administration had denied their requests.

Asked whether this meant he was scaling down his demands, the PTI chief said that their struggle will continue. “Our protest against ECP members will not stop and we will hold a rally in Islamabad after October 11, when NA-122 goes to polls,” Imran explained as he was flanked by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak and PTI general secretary Jahangir Tareen.

Imran claimed that the ECP “had a conflict of interest” with his party due to their demands for their members to resign, and that the poll body “wishes the PTI would lose so that they could disapprove the allegations.” Under election rules, the political parties cannot stage any public gathering or hold rallies in a constituency 48 hours ahead of the polling day.

By-elections had been announced in NA-122 for October 11 after former National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had been de-seated by an election tribunal. NA-122 and NA-154 were due to go to polls on October 11, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a stay order for the latter. Imran said that staging peaceful demonstration was their democratic right. He warned that should the government try to stop them, it would be responsible for the consequences.

PML-N hiding behind stay order in NA-154

While Imran shied away from commenting directly on the apex court’s decision to suspend the by-elections in NA-154 and stay a tribunal’s decision to de-seat the incumbent MNA Sadiq Baloch, he instead accused Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had a history of “hiding behind stay orders.”

“You [the PML-N] had said you will contest the PTI in the people’s court (elections), so why are you now running?” he asked. “You [PML-N] have done so because you know you will be defeated.” But Imran did take a swipe at the judiciary, pointing out how a stay order had been granted just 12 days before the by-election.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2015.