RAWALPINDI: In a report sent to the Punjab government and the interior ministry on Sunday, the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) said most of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) supporters in Rawalpindi came from the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Bahria Town.

The report also stated that around 1,500 to 2,000 PTI workers travelled to the federal capital daily to attend the sit-in at D-Chowk.

Worried about the swelling number of participants in the PTI protest despite the closure of roads, the provincial government and the interior ministry had asked the city administration to check the source of the influx.

City administration is using CCTV cameras to monitor people travelling from Pindi to attend D-Chowk sit-in

“The administration has installed CCTV cameras at Murree Road, Pirwadhai Mor, Golra Mor, Koral Chowk and Faizabad to check the movement of people from Rawalpindi to Islamabad,” said a senior CDGR official while talking to Dawn.

He said only one lane was open on most of the roads towards Islamabad and the local police had been asked to count the number of vehicles moving to the capital.

“Most of the people go to Islamabad for personal work or for offices, so we decided to count them in the evening,” he said, adding: “A total of 350 motorbikes and 500 cars came back from Islamabad late at night. Most of the people went to DHA and Bahria Town.”

He confessed that two days ago the interior ministry had blamed the Rawalpindi administration for failing to stop the people from entering Islamabad. He said most of the people at the sit-in were from Islamabad, as the number of people from Rawalpindi was not more than 2,000. District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall was not available for comments. Meanwhile, PTI leaders expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of their district chapters for not mobilising enough people.

“The party leaders believed that the local chapter was supposed to bring more than 10,000 people to the sit-in daily but the actual numbers were less,” said a senior PTI leader while talking to Dawn.

He said that the local leaders in Imran Khan’s NA-56 constituency had failed to bring a large crowd to the sit-in venue.

“New directions have been issued that the next few days will be crucial and that the local leaders will have to bring at least 100 people from each union council from the city areas,” he said.

Imran Hayat, a member of the party’s coordination committee for NA-56, told Dawn that the people from his constituency did participate in the sit-in in Islamabad. However, he said, the party leadership had allowed the people to go home early in the morning and come back in the evening.

He admitted that most of the people went to Islamabad voluntarily as there was no arrangement to bring them to the protest site. “The local chapter’s office-bearers send text messages and inform people on social media daily, asking them to arrive at the sit-in in their own vehicles.”

He said the party workers would soon launch a campaign in Rawalpindi in support of the sit-in and demand the resignation of the prime minister. “After seeing PML-N’s rallies, most of the party workers want to show their strength in Rawalpindi too,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2014