LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) plans workers’ conventions in Lahore, Talagang and Chakwal on Monday and in Daska and Narowal on Aug 5, says a press release.

The similar programmes are scheduled for Gujjar Khan, Taxila, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin on Aug 6 and in remaining districts till Aug 11.

Also, PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry said the countdown to get a real independence from the ‘fake’ government and fake promises had already begun.

He said PTI workers were charged for the march and the government was heading towards its political demise by adopting Gullu Butt tactics.

He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was using threat and force to stop the march. He said the Punjab government’s plan to put PTI leaders under house arrest was their typical non-democratic plan.

He claimed the government had arranged 350 containers to seal Islamabad but no hurdles would stop PTI workers from entering Islamabad.

ALEEM KHAN: PTI Lahore President Abdul Aleem Khan said party chairman Imran Khan would unfold “Azadi March” strategies in Lahore on Sunday (tomorrow).

At the PTI Lahore meeting which discussed Azadi March preparations on Friday, Mr Khan said the party had made committees assigning them tasks to be implemented after the party chairman’s announcement of the plan.

He asked party leaders to attend the event to listen to the chairman.

He asked the police and the district administration to stay neutral during the march or “culprits would be noted down and dealt with accordingly when the party comes to the power”.

Referring to the Model Town firing incident, he said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had refused to take the responsibility and made former law minister Rana Sanaullah a scapegoat.

If circumstances turned so, Mr Khan said, party workers would be ready to take on the police and district administrations and would fight till the end. He said the Azadi March was being organised to streamline the country so that the posterity could live in a better Pakistan.

MNA Shafqat Mahmood said democracy could never be strengthened without reforming the election system and added that the unfair election system had produced “rigged” results in the May 2013 general elections like those in the past.

He said the electoral reforms had been brought some 20 years ago but now this duty would be performed by the PTI and Imran Khan. He vowed that a massive protest caravan would move from Lahore to Islamabad.Mian Aslam Iqbal, Shoaib Siddiqui, Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema, Farrukh Javed Moon and Zubair Khan Niazi were also present.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd , 2014