ISLAMABAD/LAHORE:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Thursday announced that his party would hold a public rally in Rawalpindi on April 9, highlighting the province’s grievances over federal policies and budgetary allocations.
Addressing a press conference at KP House Islamabad, Afridi said the provincial government would submit an application for NOC for the gathering. “If the NOC is not granted, each participant will organize the gathering in their respective locations,” he added.
Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party is prepared to raise the political temperature if it is denied permission to hold a rally on April 9, a date the party says marks “a regime operation” in 2022 that led to the ouster of the government of its now-incarcerated leader, Imran Khan.
According to PTI sources, the party, having exhausted all democratic and legal options, has now decided in principle to move away from passivity and adopt a “firmer stance”.
The source said it would not be the first time the party had shifted gears, but added that this time the stakes were at an unprecedented level.
The party is fully aware of the “repressive means of the state” to which its leaders, especially in Punjab, would be subjected before the rally, he added.
He further said that the rally will test the leadership of KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who will have to surpass his predecessor Ali Amin Gandapur, under whose leadership the PTI, even in a short time, had managed to put up decent shows.
The leader said the party has announced that it will hold a rally wherever it is arrested, if permission for Liaquat Bagh is denied.
However, the real test of leadership would be to hold firm to one’s positions while maximizing the impact of the rally.
He said the effort was aimed at ensuring PTI a place at the high table.
He added that the PTI also decided to partially focus on other issues facing the people of the country, after feeling that the official discourse of the party, prima facie, revolved only around Imran Khan.
When asked if the KP chief minister would be able to replace his predecessor, he said it remained to be seen, adding that logistical matters were still under deliberation.
However, a Punjab leader said they were not informed about the difference between this effort and previous ones, which ended in even more FIRs against them.
He said the party should refrain from testing its parliamentarians to their absolute limits. He added that they were ready to go to any extent for Imran Khan without thinking about it, but “the undue sacrifices asked of them do not benefit anyone”.
He added that the majority of Punjab would not be able to participate in the rally due to obvious reasons and hence the responsibility would lie squarely with the KP.
Meanwhile, meetings with incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan remained suspended on Thursday as authorities re-arrested party leaders outside Adiala jail.
