ISLAMABAD: Before Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri asked their activists to move towards the Prime Minister’s House on Saturday night, participants of the protests had already started showing signs of weariness.

Due to their prolonged stay in the open, the health of a number of participants has started getting affected.

Mohammad Asim, who runs a shop in Lahore, told Dawn that he came to Islamabad along with the PTI march.

“I am not worried about the shop, because my brother is running it, but I am getting tired of the prolonged stay in the federal capital. Everyday, we are told ‘the issue will be resolved tomorrow’, but the next day we a given another date,” he said.

“I have contracted skin allergy due to which it is becoming very difficult for me to stay in the sit-in. I wish the march ends as soon as possible,” he said.


Many have health issues caused by living on the roads


Tanveer Hussain, a PAT supporter from Rahimyar Khan who works in a pesticide company, left for Lahore on August 1 in response to the call given by Dr Tahirul Qadri.

“I am tired, but I cannot move from here unless Dr Qadri announces an end to the march. I might lose my job because of this, but I have convinced myself that this is a test and I have to pass it to succeed in the afterlife,” he said.

“I believe that God is helping the participants of the march. When we were in Lahore, the government announced that it will not allow us to go out of Model Town. But look at us now, we did not only reach Islamabad, but we are sitting in front of the Parliament House,” said Hussain.

Hundreds of participants of both sit-ins approached a broken water supply pipeline and used it to wash clothes and bathe.

Gilgit-based Faisal Rehman, a PTI supporter, was washing his clothes from the broken pipe.

“I came to Islamabad, with 11 other friends, on August 15. But all my friends were arrested by the police in Rawalpindi and only I managed to reach the sit-in,” he said.

“I don’t have any other clothes, so I have borrowed a sheet and washed my clothes after taking a bath. I am also trying to find my friends, who must be in some police station,” he said.

Rehman said that he works in a technical institute and came to Islamabad to create a “new Pakistan”.

Published in Dawn, August 31, 2014

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