PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is likely to give a call to its workers to come to the streets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa anytime soon to counter the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s sit-in in Islamabad, sources said.

Party sources said that in this regard the PML-N would hold public and corner meetings in their respective tehsils and districts to mobilise the workers. PML-N activists will, meanwhile, get a clear line of action in the workers convention scheduled on Sept 19 in Peshawar.

“It (convention) is aimed at activating the party workers and strengthening the party in different areas of the province,” said Rahmat Salam Khattak while talking to Dawn on Sunday. He, however, claimed, that there was no need to counter the PTI sit-in because its workers had had enough of the prolonged protest.

He observed that the protest sit-in would come to an end before Eidul Azha as the people had got tired.

He claimed that the number of participants in the PTI sit-in in Islamabad was also decreasing with the passage of time and many of them would avoid the protest if the process of arrests continued.

Party convention on 19th to give future line of action

Earlier, a meeting of the PML-N provincial council was held at Hayatabad on Aug 21, 2014 to devise a strategy for countering the ‘Azadi and Inqilab marches’, but it failed to do so because a scuffle among the workers had marred the gathering.

During this period, one protest rally was held outside Peshawar Press Club against the provincial government and its main stress was on the presence of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and his cabinet members in their offices instead of the sit-in in Islamabad.

Of late, PML-N leader Amir Muqam has held several public meetings in Shangla and Swat and criticised both the PTI and PAT.

Another senior leader, who is also a former candidate for the provincial assembly, said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PML-N seemed least bothered to say yes to the federal government’s call for protest against Imran Khan because the central leadership had been ignoring the workers of KP province.

“We will hold convention in a state of compulsion but will never opt to come on to the streets against the KP government. It will be a futile exercise because Imran himself is not interested in his government,” the leaguer said.

He pointed out that PML-N had lost many chances to strengthen the party and form government in the province. He said that Nawaz Sharif did not address public meetings during the election campaign in the province.

Mr Sharif, he recalled, had visited Mansehra to speak at his relatives’ public meetings and also Peshawar to speak at Iqbal Zafar Jhagra’s election campaign and ignored rest of the candidates.

“Nawaz Sharif has some friends and that is enough for him while the rest of workers and even the provincial office-bearers are not given any attention.

The behaviour of federal ministers with the party workers in KP is no different as far as the problems are concerned,” the source said.

He observed that KP was not a priority of the mainstream political parties because they had focused attention only on Punjab to get majority and form government in centre.

He said that many of the people in other parties wished to join PML-N, but central leadership did not pay attention. He said that these people wanted to announce their decision during a meeting with Mr Sharif.

“Politics does not give us a certificate for paradise, but one can use the political platforms for worldly gains,” a desperate activist said.

Published in Dawn, September 15th , 2014