PESHAWAR: The disgruntled workers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have postponed their planned protest against the attitude of party leadership till Nov 30.

PML-N workers across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would launch a series of protest demonstrations if party leadership didn’t accept their demands, they decided during a meeting here on Wednesday.

The meeting, held in Hayatabad, was addressed by PML-N former district president Abdul Sattar Khalil, former minister Ihsanullah Khan, former minister Alamzeb Khan, Pir Zulfiqar, Abdullah Khan, Waqif Khan, Rashid Mehmood Khan, Zakir Khan and Zahid Faqir.

They condemned the removal of Abdul Sattar Khalil from the office of PML-N Peshawar district president and urged the leadership to reinstate him. They also urged the party leadership to accept their demands pertaining to the welfare of workers.

The participants of the meeting decided to postpone their planned protest against the attitude of the leadership with the workers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They hoped that the leadership would pay attention to the issue.

The speakers said that the workers had rendered sacrifices for strengthening of the party in the past, especially when the leadership was in exile. However, they said that workers were ignored by the leadership when the party came into power.

The speakers expressed concern over the prevailing uncertain situation and unclear policy of the party about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They said that provincial government failed to serve the people and PML-N was also least interested in paying attention to the province.

“We are loyal to the party and do not want to damage it but the leadership is unwilling to accept our demands,” Mr Khalil said. He added that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was an anti-government party so they preferred to remain silent till Nov 30, a date fixed by PTI chief Imran Khan for his show of power in Islamabad.

He said that Nov 30 would be a deadline for acceptance of their demands and after that PML-N workers would be compelled to take to streets against the leadership anytime.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2014