RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is in trouble to mobilise the citizens for its Raiwind march due to internal differences and the absence of a party structure in the district.

The PTI dissolved all its local organisations last year to hold intra-party elections. However, since then the party is being run through handpicked regional presidents. The youth and women wings were also dissolved.

“In the absence of a local party structure and old party workers unwilling to participate in any campaign to stage the sit-in outside Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s house at Raiwind, there are chances that the march would be postponed,” an MPA of the PTI told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.

He said the party had directed its regional presidents to speed up the work to mobilise people for the march but the latter were facing difficulties.

In absence of local party organisations, PTI workers unwilling to participate in any protest, says a local leader

He said at present the PTI was facing grouping in every city of the province. He said PTI additional general secretary, Saifullah Niazi, recently raised an objection to the party’s decision to hold the Raiwind march.

He said the party’s youth wing staged a protest against the PTI general secretary, Jehangir Tareen, for dissolving the wing on Sunday. The youth wing organised a meeting, led by Ali Abbas Bukhari and Zubair Niazi, against the general secretary and forced the party to take back the decision on Monday.

He said in the Punjab north, the PTI sidelined MNA Ghulam Sarwar and the Zahid Kazmi group and party vice president Amir Kiani was appointed as the Punjab north president, raising questions about the new president’s ability to mobilise the citizens for the protest.

He said on August 13 the PTI failed to bring a good number of people to its rally from Rawalpindi to Islamabad which showed how popular was the party’s new Punjab north president compared to the seasoned politician, Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

However, PTI Punjab north former general secretary Zahid Kazmi did not agree with the assertion and said the party would manage a big rally toward Raiwind on September 30.

“The party has given targets to the provincial assembly constituencies and on the call of Imran Khan every worker will reach Raiwind with or without rallies.”

He said the party leaders had started booking cars on rent in their respective areas because buses would not be used by the participants to reach Raiwind.

“The Raiwind march is a do or die matter for the workers as Imran Khan has asked them to reach the place where he will announce to stage a sit-in or a public meeting,” he said.

When contacted, PTI Punjab north president Amir Kiayni said the party did not dissolve its youth and women wings and the names of officials for the local organisations would be announced soon.

He said meetings were being held in every district of the region to convince the workers for the march. He said the party workers were also actively running a campaign for the march on the social media.

He said the march would not be postponed as the chairman had decided to go to Raiwind to stage a protest against the corruption of the government and the PML-N leaders.

PTI MPA Arif Abbasi told Dawn that the workers were ready to go to Lahore and there was no need for the party organisation to mobilise the people in this regard.

“The party has set a target of 500 people from each provincial assembly to Lahore and then to Raiwind. Each MPA has to arrange 50 cars from their constituency as the transportation strategy has been changed to avoid being stopped by the government.”

He said buses would not be hired for the rallies as it would be easy for the government to stop the buses. He said MPAs had started mobilising the citizens in Rawalpindi and a first general meeting in this regard would be held in Satellite Town on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2016