SARGODHA: The district coordination officer (DCO), during a meeting with the local leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), has reportedly rejected the request of the party for holding a rally at the Sports Stadium on Oct 17 in the wake of the Multan incident and asked the party to suggest any open place.

This was stated by the PTI office-bearers on Sunday.

However, an official handout said an application for holding the meeting was received from Mumtaz Ahmad Kahlon, district president of the PTI Sargodha, for holding a rally at the stadium but DCO Saqib Manan had sent the application to the district police officer, asking for his report. It further said the final decision about the permission would be made on Oct 13 after the police report but in view of Multan incident, it was suggested to the party to hold the rally at some open place.

Sports Stadium is in the heart of city but it can accommodate only about 40,000 people while another place is Mela Mandi Ground with almost the similar capacity but it is unsafe from the security point of view. The Company Bagh also cannot afford a big gathering and the PTI officials look upset as they don’t seem to be in a position to suggest any other place.

Over 1,700 policemen will be deployed at meeting venue and district management has directed Rescue 1122 to remain present outside the venue and doctors of public hospitals have been also directed to remain on duty until the end of the meeting to meet any eventuality.

The PML-N won in most of the constituencies of Sargodha in last general election and a couple of winning independents had also joined the party later on but the situation seems to have changed after the recent floods. “Go Nawaz go” slogans were heard in the camps of flood victims when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went there and the flood affected staged protest rallies for not getting relief goods and compensation.

It is reliably learnt that some dejected office-bearers of the PPP and PML-N have approached the PTI to join it and a candidate who had contested the election on the PPP ticket is likely to announce joining the PTI in the public meeting on Oct 17.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2014