LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders in Punjab have decided to stage sit-in wherever they can gather in their respective areas until the government will open people’s access to Islamabad or release party founder Imran Khan.

“The government itself has closed the entire country ahead of former premier Mr Khan’s “final call” to stage protest and sit-in in Islamabad,” said PTI Punjab information secretary Shaukat Basra while speaking to Dawn on Saturday.

As a part of Plan B, PTI secretary-general Salman Akram Raja has plans to lead the party protest in Lahore and similarly every party legislator, ticket-holder and office-bearer would lead the protest in their respective areas and sit there and they would not be granted access towards Islamabad.

Basra said the incumbent government’s senselessness could be gauged from the fact that the tehsils have lost contacts to their districts, and districts cut-off from divisions leading to complete chaos in the province. He said the government also closed all motorways, G.T. Road and other roads leading to Islamabad by placing a large number of containers at every exit point in the province. He said the government also closed hotels and hostels in Islamabad.

Party activists asked to stage sit-ins in respective areas

Mr Basra said the nation taking to the streets would not retreat until the party’s three demands would be met. “The government may keep the country closed for a day or two or even one month, the people coming out to protest would not retreat,” he asserted.

Since some unidentified people had also barged in his house in Bahawalnagar and ransacked every household item, Mr Basra said the fear of Imran Khan had put the government and their handlers on toes and now they had stooped so low that they were picking relatives of party leaders, office-bearers and active workers. “Some 40 elderly people had been picked by the police from my NA-161 constituency,” he frowned.

The information secretary said the police had been violating the sanctity of four walls and damaging every household item including DVRs of CCTV cameras so that the rogues’ identities could not be revealed.

Responding to Punjab information minister Azma Bukhari’s presser, the PTI spokesman said her wailing vividly explained the level of incumbent government’s fear of the Nov 24 protest. He said the PML-N government had kept over 120 million people of Punjab hostage. “No one can dare to end PTI’s protest, until Imran Khan is released and the fake incumbent government be sent packing,” Mr Basra asserted.

He lambasted the government for using its ‘stooge’ IG Police to break into the homes of PTI leaders and workers. He, however, asserted that the people of Pakistan would rise like a storm on Sunday (today) and ‘wash away the fake Form-47 government.’

Meanwhile, speaking to Dawn, Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar said he would lead a mass rally of protesters from his constituency in Mianwali, while all PTI MPAs and ticket-holders would lead rallies from their respective constituencies.

“All the PTI MPAs including `Form-45 MPAs’ are united and marching towards Islamabad on the ‘final call’ to get party founder Imran Khan released from Adiala Jail and restore the rule of law,” Mr Bhachar said.The opposition leader also observed that the government was implicating Mr Khan and his wife in fake cases, which people of Pakistan were not ready to accept.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2024