PESHAWAR/SWABI/SWAT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Azam Swati on Tuesday claimed that the party’s planned protest demonstration against ‘rigging’ in elections would be a landmark event to weed out corrupt elements from the political system of Pakistan.
He said that PTI workers would reach Islamabad in large numbers on May 11 to demand their ‘basic constitutional right’. The protest, he claimed would ensure that no one stole elections in Pakistan in future.
He was addressing a meeting of MPAs and PTI’s Peshawar district cabinet at the party’s provincial secretariat here, according to a press release.
The meeting discussed preparations for the protest and entrusted leaders present on the occasion with different responsibilities.
Speaking on the occasion, PTI’s provincial secretary general Khalid Masood appealed to the masses to join their movement with full strength. He claimed that thousands of people from KP would reach Islamabad’s D Chowk to demand probe into ‘rigging in last general elections’
Mr Masood claimed that Imran Khan was the only political leader who had been sincerely struggling for an enlightened future of Pakistan.
Provincial vice president Sajjad Ahmed Khan, MPAs Ziaullah Afridi, Javed Naseem, Arif Yousuf, Fazale Illahi, Mehmood Jan, Arbab Jahandad, Ishtiaq Urmar, provincial additional secretary information Syed Israr Badshah, chief coordinator Fayaz Khalil, Peshawar SVP sports and cultural forum Ilyas Khalil and Peshawar district senior vice president of the youth wing Ilyas Khalil were also in attendance.
In Swabi, PTI claimed that over 2,000 party workers and leaders from the district would participate in the May 11 protest demonstration in Islamabad.
Briefing mediapersons about the preparations, PTI district general secretary Yousuf Ali said local leaders and office-bearers of various regions had held various meetings and finalised the plan to join the protest demonstration in Islamabad with full vigour.
“Over 2,000 diehard workers would march to Islamabad,” he said, adding that transport facilities had also been arranged to take the protesters to the capital.
In reply to a question, Mr Ali said PTI leadership waited for a whole year with the hope that an inquiry would be conducted into alleged rigging in the general elections, but nothing happened, forcing the party to come on roads.
He rejected rival parties’ allegations that the protest would harm the nascent democracy in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, PTI’s district president Anwar Haq Dad Khan appealed to party workers and people to join their struggle to ‘root out’ corruption and to end, once for all, the practice of committing rigging in elections.
In Swat, the PTI district president and member of provincial assembly Dr Amjad Ali said that they had worked out a plan to ensure maximum participation of people in the sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad against rigging in general elections.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said PTI had strong reservations over May 11, 2013 elections.