ISLAMABAD: After 126 days of non-stop protests, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan called off his party’s ‘sit-in’ outside parliament, on Wednesday.

Undeterred by weather, criticism and isolation, it was finally a heinous attack of terrorism in Peshawar that persuaded him to get off the container.

After attending the multi-party conference (MPC), which had been called in Peshawar on Wednesday in the wake of the savage attack on the Army Public School, the PTI chief returned to his container in Islamabad, where he and his supporters held funeral prayers in absentia for those killed in the savage attack on the Army Public School.

After that, Mr Khan addressed his supporters and announced the end of the sit-in. His speech was short and shorn of his usual admonitions and attacks on politicians and others.

He focused on his trip to Peshawar and the attack and began by confessing that his initial reaction was to skip the MPC because of his anger at the PML-N government. But then he decided to go.

He explained: “After the Peshawar corps commander briefed us about cross-border infiltration, I thought this was not the time for opposition. I reached the conclusion that in view of the ongoing situation in Pakistan the ‘sit-in’ would have to be called off.”

“This is the time for unity and the nation also expects this from the PTI,” he added.

“The war against terrorism is not an ordinary war,” he said, adding that Pakistan needed to fight terrorism with different tactics and that the PTI would join other political parties in the National Planning Committee (NPC).

The decision to form the NPC was taken in the Peshawar MPC on Wednesday.

He, however, made it clear that the PTI would not put aside its demand for a probe into the 2013 general elections and hoped that the government would fulfil its earlier promise of forming a judicial commission to look into the matter.

“We will accept Nawaz Sharif as a legitimate prime minister only after the judicial commission clears him,” he warned.

Mr Khan demanded that those responsible for rigging must be punished so the future elections are not rigged.

He expressed the hope that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would respond favourably and would order the probe. “I have requested the government to form the judicial commission at the earliest so the country can move forward”, he said.

The PTI chief made it clear that if the government backtracked, his party could take to the streets again – though he set no deadline for this.

“We have the street power and we can shut down any city at any time with the support of people of Pakistan”, he thundered.

The announcement did not come as a complete surprise as his words and body language at the MPC had also suggested such a move. Sitting next to the prime minister during a media interaction, he had made it clear then that he was not going to indulge in politics in the wake of the attack.

The prime minister had PPP leaders on one side and Mr Khan on the other.

And when PTI chief said that he was returning to the container from the MPC, the prime minister laughed and added that if he didn’t have to go to hospital with the COAS, he would have accompanied the PTI chief to the container.

All this suggested that the government and the PTI were coming to terms with each other.

However, some of the PTI supporters were not content with Mr Khan’s decision and chanted slogans, demanding that the sit- in continue.

Some of them even blocked his vehicle’s path and tried to convince him to review its decision.

Dawn later learnt that the party leadership was also divided on calling off the protest all of a sudden.

During the meeting of PTI’s core committee, Asad Umar and Chaudhry Ijaz argued that the protest should continue until the judicial commission was formed.

However, they were outnumbered by those who wanted the ‘sit-in’ to be called off immediately.

Silence on resignations

Mr Khan’s short speech did not mention the PTI’s resignations from parliament.

However, those within the PTI explained that the issue was not discussed at the core committee’s meeting on Wednesday, but a PTI official suggested that the fate of the resignations may be linked with the outcome of the judicial commission.

If the judicial commission gives a clean chit to the 2013 general elections, the lawmakers would withdraw the resignations and return to the Parliament, he explained. But if the judicial commission gives a verdict against last year’s election, the PTI will press the government for fresh elections.

Reaction of political parties

Prime Minister Sharif and co-chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party, (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari, welcomed Imran Khan’s decision to call off the ‘sit-in’.

The PM said that PTI’s reservations regarding last year’s elections would be addressed.

Mr Zardari, in a statement, said that “the announcement to call off the dharna is a step in the right direction that should be welcomed by every one without grudge or reservations.”

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2014