PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is likely to take to streets in the provincial capital to protest the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek rallies in Islamabad against the federal government.

“Our workers are forcing us to allow them to block Peshawar roads to counter the Azadi and Inqilab marches in Islamabad but we have strictly asked them to remain peaceful,” PML-N provincial spokesman Nasir Khan Musazai told Dawn on Wednesday.

Musazai said his party did not like to stress out the public by closing roads as that would be extremely immature political move. He said his party believed in negotiations, dialogue and arguments and not in violence.

The PML-N leader said the decision to plan any counter strategy would be taken with prior approval of the central leadership and that the suggestions of the provincial council on the matter would be conveyed to the central leadership for approval.

Leader says party believes in dialogue not violence

Meanwhile, PML-N general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday that an important meeting of his party’s provincial council would take place at Phase-III Chowk of Hayatabad today (Thursday) to decide about future line of action against PTI and PAT sit-ins in Islamabad.

Flanked by Arbab Akbar Hayat, Abdul Sattar Khalil, Alamzeb and Nasir Musazai, he came hard on Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadir for closing Islamabad roads and besieging parliament.

Khattak said the workers’ pressure on provincial leadership was increasing for countering the PTI and PAT rallies but the PML-N leadership had so far not given its permission on the matter. He warned his party could counter rallies everywhere in the country but it didn’t believe in violent and confrontational politics as it wanted to show its performance through developmental work.

The PML-N leader said the PTI and the PAT were bent on derailing democracy as they had no position in the mainstream politics but the federal government would not allow them to do so. “Rest of political parties are opposed to the sit-ins as they have caused massive financial losses to the country,” he said.

Khattak said the protest marches had also brought a bad name to the country and that in case democracy was derailed, the PTI and the PAT would be to blame.

He said future line of action against sit-ins would be decided during the party’s council meeting.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Engineer Amir Muqam warned his party’s workers could effectively respond to the PAT and PTI sit-ins but a decision on it would be taken after consultation with the central leadership.

He condemned the besieging of parliament by PTI and PAT workers and declared it an ‘extremely childish’ step on part of the two parties.

Muqam said the PTI and PAT leaders should stop staging ‘dramas on the roads’ otherwise the PML-N could teach them a lesson. He said PAT and PTI were serving own interests and that they had nothing to do with the national integrity, economy.

The PML-N leader said the entire nation was against sit-ins protest marches as they could harm democracy.

He also criticised PTI chief Imran Khan’s call for civil disobedience and said the call was good enough to prove his ‘enmity’ towards the country. “Imran doesn’t want the country’s economy to flourish,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014