LAHORE: Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif agreed on Monday to lower the rising tension between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf over the Raiwind march and give Imran Khan a ‘free hand’ for his planned protest on Sept 30.

Mr Shahbaz also ordered closure of PML-N offices on the route of the PTI’s Raiwind march to prevent any possibility of a clash.

“Baton-field force (of the PML-N) will not be tolerated. PTI workers are also like our children and we will protect their lives (during the Raiwind march),” the chief minister was said to have stated after meeting Chaudhry Nisar here.

Mr Nisar arrived here from Islamabad and held a meeting with Mr Sharif at the Chief Minister’s office to discuss the government’s strategy to deal with the PTI’s planned Raiwind march on Sept 30.

“Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Shahbaz Sharif discussed the government’s strategy towards the PTI march and matters related to the National Action Plan (NAP),” an interior ministry spokesman told Dawn.

“More meetings will be held in this regard to finalise the government’s Raiwind strategy,” he added.

An official source told Dawn that the interior minister had to rush to Lahore when tensions ran high between the PML-N and PTI after Mr Khan announced his party’s march on the Raiwind residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said the interior minister was of the view that the PML-N was unnecessarily giving hype to the PTI’s proposed march by holding rallies in which clubs and axes were being brandished.

Even on Tuesday ‘Nawaz Sharif janisaar force’ and the PML-N youth and women wings held a rally from Bhubatian Chowk to Adda Plot in Raiwind and warned Mr Khan against marching on the residence of the prime minister.

Clubs have become a regular feature of the PML-N’s anti-Imran Khan rallies and gatherings over his planned Raiwind march and in Tuesday’s rally too most of the participants were also holding them (clubs), saying they would break legs of PTI workers if they dared to come to Raiwind.

Punjab government’s spokesman Zaeem Qadri on Monday hurled threats to the PTI at a press conference along with PML-N Janisaars, a baton-wielding force of the party, formed to block the PTI from marching on Raiwind.

The source further said that Chaudhry Nisar and Mr Shahbaz also discussed the Sept 3 rally of PTI in which they said the PTI failed to get the public support.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2016