PESHAWAR: Unruly scenes were witnessed during a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz meeting called here on Thursday to make a strategy against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek sit-ins against the party’s federal government in Islamabad.

The meeting of the PML-N provincial council took place in Hayatabad, where members of the body and party office-bearers showed up in large numbers.

The meeting scheduled to adopt some resolutions against the PTI and PAT was in total disorder after some party activists led by Iftikhar Khan shouted at leaders and asked them not to make speeches.

“Central senior vice president of the party Engineer Amir Muqam wanted to leave the venue for a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and therefore, he wished to speak to the participants before other leaders. As soon as he got up at the stage, some people began shouting,” a participant told Dawn.He said the shouting took senior leaders by surprise and they wondered if it was a conspiracy against the party.

The participant said the people thrashed the man making a fuss and torn his clothes.

The man was later identified as Iftikhar Khan, an old party worker from Charsadda.

The leaders apologised to him and took him out for first aid.

However, PML-N provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak denied clash between two groups of the party and said the scuffle was result of a misunderstand.

He said there was no groupings in PML-N and the workers were fully united to take steps if ordered by the leadership against the marchers.

“The party worker Haji Iftikhar Ahmed had asked the leaders to be prepared for offering sacrifices, coming to the streets instead of making speeches which led to the scuffle,” he added.

PML-N leaders Pir Sabir Shah, Amir Muqam, Nasir Khan Musazai and Rehmat Salam Khattak also spoke on the occasion and assured participants that the party was ready to teach a lesson to PTI and PAT whenever it was asked by the central leadership.

“No one can change the government by adopting illegal means as PML-N had got heavy mandate from the public to rule the country for five years,” Muqam said.

The PML-N leader said his party had a democratic background based on civilised policies which never resorted to violence and misconduct.

“The people who are dancing, singing on roads cannot bring any change in the fate of the nation and it is better for them to say goodbye to the politics,” he advised Imran Khan.

Muqam said at a time when majority of the political parties supported the government’s stance for upholding supremacy of law, constitution there was no room for such marches.

Pir Sabir Shah said the leaders of PTI and PAT had adopted very childish way for acceptance of their demands but the government would never succumb to the pressure of such marchers.

He asked workers to exercise restraint and listen to the directives of the leadership because his party did not want to take any irresponsible step which could bring bad name to the country.

Shah said the prime minister had done nothing wrong and those demanding his resignation were leaving in the fools’ paradise and that the marches had caused heavy financial losses to the country and their entire responsibility was with PTI and PAT.Khattak asked the people to wait till further orders from the party’s high command as discipline was first thing for a political party. He said the PML-N workers could not adopt such irresponsible steps like those adopted by PTI and PAT and that it would act in line with the directions of central leadership.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014