LAHORE: Following the debacle of PTI’s retreat from Islamabad a day earlier, the rank and file of PTI is fuming with indignation over the party leadership’s failure to lead from the front.

Party workers are also upset that they were left stranded and unguided to respond in tough situations in the wake of executing party founder Imran Khan’s final call for protest and sit-in in Islamabad.

Many disgruntled party workers took to social media to express their resentment, many leaders and loyalists’ X accounts – usually filled with messages of support or defiance – went silent, while party chairman Barrister Gohar disabled public commenting on his X handle.

As party secretary-general Salman Akram Raja tweeted his point of view over his absence from Islamabad, a party sympathiser responded, “These excuses are hollow and meaningless. Since you are not an elected official, we will not expect you lead and gather crowds, but as a high ranking party official, you were expected to lead from the front”.

Many vocal leaders’ X accounts remain silent; Salman Raja says they will move court over workers’ deaths

A visibly disturbed party worker said the party leadership had been planning the protest for the past 10 days or more, and telling them they had “Plan-B, C and even D”, but none of it materialised on the ground.

“The party leadership including secretary-general Salman Akram Raja, Punjab president Hammad Azhar, information secretary Shaukat Basra and others simply failed to reach Islamabad on time”.

Naveed Malik, a party worker from Lahore, said that Hammad Azhar, who is still in hiding, failed to perform at all.

Since Hammad’s X handle remained silent on Wednesday, party workers and supporters continued commenting in tweet from a day earlier. One supporter wrote,”Hammad was supposed to lead Punjab but led a caravan of few scores of party workers”.

Another Twitteratti said, “Do not slip before reaching Islamabad like always”.

Giving a feel of views of party workers from Punjab, Mr Malik said the workers had virtually disowned Hammad Azhar as their leader.

Another diehard PTI worker, Ishtiaq Ahmad, who had managed to reach Islamabad on his own, said those from Punjab remained rudderless as there was literally no one to guide them after sunset on Tuesday.

Commenting on war of words and ongoing blame game between Punjab and KP workers, party leader and ticket-holder Shayan Bashir said the party workers were disillusioned. “In party, there was no concept of workers from Punjab or KP because everyone is a worker of Imran Khan”.

He said a new kind of rift among workers is emerging, which was earlier visible among party leaders since illegitimate incarceration of Mr Khan.

Separately, in a video message released on Wednesday, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said that the party would lodge cases and approach courts against the state, interior ministry and the interior minister for orchestrating massacre of innocent citizens. He said even the handlers of the puppet government would be made answerable to the massacre of innocent citizens.

Mr Raja also alleged that government forces “opened straight fire” on unarmed protesters and, as a result, 20 party supporters lost their lives.

“We will not sit silent and make the ‘miscreants’, ruling with fake mandate, pay for the massacre of PTI supporters,” Mr Raja warned in a video message released from his X handle on Wednesday. He also said the party would continue its struggle to get people’s human and constitutional rights.

The secretary general said the respect for vote had completely been eroded from Pakistan since the Feb 8 public mandate was stolen. In order to perpetuate fake government’s tenure, he said, the rulers and their handlers had kept Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and others in jails.

Mr Raja said the people of Pakistan would remember how a fake government held the entire country hostage by blocking exit/entry points of all cities.

Acknowledging that several people including party men had criticised that why Lahorites including himself did not reach Islamabad on the ‘final call’ of Imran Khan, he said the party leaders and workers did come out on Nov 24, 25 and 26 but the government had closed all exit-entry points and no one was allowed to go near those points. He said the police resorted to baton charge whenever it found people standing in groups and added that it was people’s right to gather and travel towards Islamabad.

“For me, it seemed ridiculous to go near Lahore’s exit-entry point and take pictures and share as a gimmick,” he said and claimed that it was not possible for anyone to go out of Lahore, which had been turned into a prison for Lahorites.

Meanwhile, party founder Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum asked through her X handle that why was the sound and light on the container shut early in the evening?

“As a result, in total darkness, there were no instructions or any guidance available for the people on the ground,” she observed. She also said, “We pleaded all evening for the light and sound on the container to be turned on, but there was no response by the people giving instructions.”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2024