LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek, led by Dr Tahirul Qadri, kicked off its ‘Inqilab’ march on Islamabad on Thursday afternoon after the Shahbaz Sharif government delayed even a conditional permission to the marchers.

Cranes started removing the containers placed around Model Town, the neighbourhood housing PAT and sister organisation Minhajul Quran’s offices, at 2pm after the police manning the barriers were withdrawn.

Residents of the locality, besieged along with PAT activists for the past week and facing problems of mobility and shortage of essential items, heaved a sigh of relief as the government decision averted a feared showdown between the charged workers and law-enforcement personnel.

Enthusiastic and jubilant activists helped the crane operators remove the barricades.

A large number of workers were seen walking because of inadequate transport facilities. Only the vehicles that had transported workers from across Punjab for a “martyrs’ day” held by the party on Aug 10 were at hand to take the activists to Islamabad.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the PAT were to launch a joint march as agreed during PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s meeting with Dr Qadri on Tuesday. Under the plan, Dr Qadri was to join PTI chief Imran Khan at the latter’s Zaman Park residence for jointly leading the marchers.

But to the shock of the PAT chief, Mr Khan left his residence without waiting for him.

A slighted Dr Qadri changed his route but without complaining. “I’m not hurt by Imran Khan’s act of leaving for Islamabad alone,” he told the media.

The second shock for him was Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid’s failure to keep his promise of riding with him instead of Mr Khan.

The PAT chief, instead of following the ‘Azadi march’ on The Mall, took the Allama Iqbal Road that runs parallel and, stepping up the convoy’s pace, overtook the PTI procession.

He was a couple of kilometres ahead of Mr Khan on the GT Road by midnight.

Among around 10,000 participants of the PAT march, a big chunk comprised boys and girls carrying backpacks containing mats, clothes and eatables like roasted gram and dates since they expect a prolonged stay in the capital.

Many of them were also carrying masks and goggles to protect themselves in case of tear gassing by police.

In an attempt to belie a perception that students of Minhaj institutions were taking part in the march without their parents’ permission, a student, Ahmed Pervez, told Dawn: “We’ve full backing of our families in following our leader Dr Tahirul Qadri.”

Notwithstanding assurances given to the government that the marchers would not carry clubs and other weapons, some young women had sticks in their hands.

“The club is meant for protecting myself in case police try to force me away from the protest venue in Islamabad,” one of them said. “We’ll do everything for the cause of revolution and bear any type of torture.”

Fayyaz, another participant, said: “I’m sure that the march will achieve what the poor of this country have been dreaming of.”

He said Dr Qadri had promised to control price hike and provide basic necessities to every citizen and “our leader is known for keeping his promises”.

Abdul Qadri, from Kasur, said: “Our passion will make the rulers flee Islamabad. We have already forced them to remove all the obstacles in Lahore.”

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2014