RAWALPINDI: If Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) workers are arrested ahead of the party’s planned “lockdown” of the capital city, the party plans to lay siege to the police station where they would be held.

Following Saturday’s meeting at Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence, party workers from Rawalpindi were conveyed these directives and asked to stage sit-ins outside police stations if the Punjab government stared the active workers of the party before Nov 2.

“Workers should avoid arrest and if anyone arrested, then more than 200 workers will immediately reach that police station and stage a sit-in,” a senior party leader quoted Imran Khan as saying in the meeting.

Local leaders get marching orders at formal meeting with Imran Khan

According to the plan, he said that on Nov 2, PTI workers would gather at Faizabad and march towards Zero Point under Mr Khan’s leadership. “Blocking Zero Point will render Kashmir Highway, I.J. Principal Road, Murree Road and Islamabad Expressway closed and the federal capital will be in lockdown,” he said.

“Party leaders are of the view that the government will close the roads themselves, helping the party’s plan to besiege Islamabad,” he said.

He said that the party would not tolerate any “aggression” from Punjab and Islamabad police, as they had received reports that police would take action against party leaders and may even place them under house arrest.

In the meeting, he said, party leaders discussed ways to handle media and social media coverage to ensure that the planned siege was successful. He said that party workers had been asked to make preparations for their stay in Islamabad.

Imran Khan has also formed a three-member committee to facilitate contacts between the party leadership and workers during the siege, which includes comprising MNA Ghulam Sarwar Khan and local leaders Amir Kiani and Sadaqat Abbasi.

The PTI leader told Dawn that the party had decided that Mr Khan would visit Islamabad’s adjoining cities and towns before the siege; Mr Khan will meet with local workers in the garrison city before proceeding to the Lal Haveli on Oct 28.

When asked about the instructions given to workers, PTI Punjab North President Amir Kiani told Dawn the meeting of party leaders was a formal meeting to boost the morale of party workers and inform them about the party’s plan to “lockdown” the capital city.

He denied the impression that a committee had been formed, but said that Imran Khan had asked the three leaders to meet with party workers and speed up their activities so that more and more people come to the sit-in.

“There is a plan to stage a sit-in at Zero Point initially. Traffic on the city’s roads will be paralysed when hundreds of PTI workers from across the country will descend on the capital city,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2016