PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Monday asked the participants of its Azadi March to bring necessary items, including bottles of water, dry fruit and biscuits, with them.

Provincial mines and mineral development minister Ziaullah Afridi told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that more than 400,000 people would participate in the march on Islamabad.

He said if Imran Khan was detained or workers were stopped from entering Islamabad, then alternative routes would be used to ensure presence in Islamabad.

Afridi said over 40,000 marchers had been in Peshawar. He said participants of the march would remain peaceful but any attempt to block their way would be foiled.

Leader says nothing less than early fair polls acceptable

“If the government tries to stop us, we will do away with obstacles to reach Islamabad,” he said.

The PTI leader said a rally would be taken out from Hasthnagri to Saddar in the evening today (Tuesday), the party’s provincial leadership will show up.

He asked party workers and sympathisers to throng the rally.

Adviser to the chief minister on environment Ishtiaq Urmar and PTI central law secretary Salman Afridi were also in attendance.

Also in the day, Peshawar MNA Sajid Nawaz announced he would lead 13,000 marchers on foot from Jinnah Park in the city to Islamabad.

The MNA told a news conference that PTI workers were ideological people and that they would reach Islamabad at all costs.

“This country was not made for few families. The common man wants end to aristocracy for democracy in true spirit,” he said.

Nawaz said the last general elections were rigged and that the people were sick of the existing corrupt system in the country. He said the PTI wanted the early holding of free and fair elections and won’t accept anything less than that.

“We will reach Islamabad on foot and will prove that no power in the world can stop ideological persons,” he said.

Meanwhile, PTI women wing president Mehar Taj Roghani on Monday chaired a meeting of the party’s women workers at the PTI Pakhtunkhwa Secretariat here to finalise arrangements for the Azadi March on Islamabad.

Activists of the PTI women wing from across the province attended the meeting.

On the occasion, Roghani said thousands of party women workers from the province would take part in the march to make it a success.

She said the party would ensure lodging and food for women participants of the march.

Also in the day, PTI took out motorcycle and car rallies in the capital city.

One rally led by Ilyas Khalil was taken out from Qayyum Stadium to Hayatabad, while the other led by MPA Yasin Khalil and PTI youth wing district president Sajid Bangash was staged between Hayatabad and Saddar.

Local MNAs Hamidul Haq, Sajid Nawaz and MPAs Shaukat Yousafzai, Mehmood Jan and Arbab Jehandad Khan were also present in rallies.

Workers participated in rallies in large numbers holding party flags and shouting slogans of change. They said they would march on Islamabad on Aug 14 at all costs. In Nowshera, too, scores of PTI workers led by party youth president Sajjad Fayyaz took a round of the city on motorcycles in connection with the Azadi March.

In Jabbori area of Mansehra, PTI activists took out a rally to express their resolve to reach the federal capital on Aug 14.

The participants said they firmly believed only PTI chief Imran Khan could steer the country out of the current socioeconomic, security and political crises for putting it on the path of progress.

Also in Shinkiari area, a car rally was staged by the PTI workers and sympathisers in connection with the Azadi March.

Published in Dawn, Aug 12th, 2014