GUJRAT: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to hold Oct 24 rally, which will be addressed by party chief Imran Khan, at the Zahoor Elahi Cricket Stadium.

However, the district administration has suggested to the party two other venues for the rally, namely the cricket grounds of Zamindar College or the Govt Swedish Pakistani College of Technology.

PTI Punjab president Ijaz Chaudhry paid a visit to Zahoor Elahi Cricket Stadium on Saturday but the party is yet to formally apply for a permission to hold the meeting there.

Admin has reservations about the venue over capacity

Before visiting the venue, Mr Chaudhry told the reporters at a news conference that the party had decided to hold the rally at the Zahoor Elahi stadium. He said the responsibility for security arrangements would be of police, warning the Punjab government against creating any hurdles to holding the rally.

District Police Officer Rai Ijaz Ahmed also reached the stadium and briefed the PTI leader on the venue and reportedly asked them to opt for the Zamindar College or the Swedish college grounds where there was more capacity to accommodate a massive crowd than the Zahoor Elahi stadium.

According to the organisers as well as the officials of the district government and police, the cricket stadium has a capacity of housing about 70,000 people, including the spectators stands and the ground but as the authorities here are expecting more crowd than of the estimated capacity they advised the organisers not to hold the meeting at stadium.

An official of the district government told Dawn the participation of more than 100,000 people was being expected as per the reports submitted by the law enforcement and the other government agencies since it was the first-ever public meeting of Imran in Gujrat which had an easy approach from the surrounding districts of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin being on GT Road.

He said Gujrat was located only at 45 minutes drive from all of its surrounding districts and it usually took some two hours to reach Gujrat from Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad so a big participation from all these aforementioned cities was expected which might exceed the capacity crowd. In that case, it would be very difficult for the organisers as well as the government authorities to make the foolproof security arrangements, he said.

A police official said that about two years back when the district government had organised a friendly T20 cricket match, involving the national cricket team’s players and some 25,000 people had turned up to watch the match, a stampede had occurred at the stadium, resulting in ending the match before its completion. It would be a very hard to house even 70,000 people in the stadium, he said, adding that 70,000 people could only be adjusted if there was no stage made for traditional containers in the ground.

However, the PTI office-bearers believe that by holding the rally at Zahoor Elahi stadium, it could get maximum political mileage out of the rally since the venue was located right in the city with an easy access from the entire town. Another factor that they were counting on is that the venue is situated on the main route, leading to the University of Gujrat, which was only a few kilometers away, and as the university would be open on Friday there would be bigger participation of the students, especially the females, in the rally.

It is learnt that making the security arrangements has become a major headache for the police that have already been busy in planning the security in the entire district during the Muharram for the last one week.

A formal meeting between the Gujrat district administration and the local PTI chapter to finalise the venue as well as other terms and conditions of the rally is expected to be held on Sunday (today).

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014