ISLAMABAD: The Constitution Avenue these days gives the look of Jalozai Camp in the Nowshera district and the newly-established Bakakhel camp of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A visit to the sit-in venue of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on Tuesday showed the participants staying in and outside tattered tents.

Seven-year-old Sofia Shehroz along with her parents has been participating in the sit-in for almost 24 days. The family reached here from Bharwana area of district Chiniot to bring a ‘revolution’ under the leadership of Tahirul Qadri, the chief of PAT.

Also read: Sit-in: PTI to mark completion of one month

In the humid weather, Sofia tries to construct a mud house for her doll outside her tent close to the D-Chowk in the Red Zone. It’s been her goal since her schoolteacher told her that mud houses kept one cool in the heat. She got the doll as a gift from her father after passing her exams.

According to the participants of the sit-in, hundreds of people along with their families have already left for their hometowns due to different reasons but others are still living at the Constitution Avenue under the open sky on the directions of their leader. However, their sufferings are increasing day by day due to the unpredicted weather in the federal capital.

Shehroz Wahla, 45, the father of Sofia, said it was unfortunate that the leadership of PAT had failed to bring a revolution during the last over three weeks while the sufferings of the people were increasing.

“Do you think it is easy for people to remain absent from their offices and children from their schools for almost one month.”

He said the participants had come to the sit-in with the expectation that the demands of PAT would be fulfilled within two or three days as Mr Qadri used to mount pressure on the government by giving deadlines during the first 15 days of the sit-in.“But the leadership of PAT gave up the idea of announcing more deadlines after the delay in the dialogue with the government,” Mr Wahla added.

Similarly, Qaiser Khattak, a PTI supporter from Lakki Marwat in KP, said it was a wrong decision of his party leadership to announce deadlines again and again during the first two weeks of the sit-in.

“First, Imran Khan also announced deadlines but after the decision to move towards the Prime Minister House on August 30 and the clashes of the marchers with the police at Constitution Avenue, both the PTI and PAT leaders stopped giving more deadlines,” he added.

According to the participants of the sit-ins, the leaders of both the parties are now trying to divert the attention of the people by opening new fronts such as lambasting the JUI-F chief, alleging widespread rigging in the 2013 election in Balochistan, criticising the imposition of the governor rule in the province after the killing of the Hazara community members a year ago besides announcing to approach the Supreme Court against the prime minister and calling army personnel to attend the sit-ins along with their families.

The participants also believed that the government was interested in resolving the political impasse before the visit of the Chinese president but after the postponement of the visit it was trying to prolong the crisis.

They said the government was also taking part in the rescue and relief activities in the flood-affected areas in Punjab and AJK while the media had also started focusing on the sufferings of the flood-affected people.

It will be an achievement if the leadership of both the PTI and PAT succeeded in forcing the government to fulfil their demands for electoral reforms. After the resolution of the joint session of the parliament in support of the government, it is unlikely that the prime minister or the chief minister Punjab will resign, the participants added.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014