RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Sunday visited the garrison city to launch his party’s membership drive ahead of the general elections but it did not turn out to be an impressive show as the party’s local leaders failed to bring enough people.

As many as 10 camps were established to welcome Mr Khan but the crowd was limited to his rally.

The membership camps were not visited by many people .

However, a warm welcome was accorded to him at Committee Chowk where all local leaders led by MPA Arif Abbasi had gathered with party workers.

The membership camps in the cantonment areas failed to attract crowds, exposing division and a lack of coordination among the party’s office-bearers.

A senior PTI leader told Dawn that there were different reasons for the unimpressive show.

“The PTI Rawalpindi is a divided house due to which it failed to bring people to the rally,” he said.

He said the local leaders were divided into three groups and failed to make arrangements for the event.

The party in the cantonment areas is headless as newcomers are struggling to get tickets for NA-54 (NA-61 proposed) and NA-52 (NA-59 proposed).

He said Ghulam Sarwar Khan wanted to contest from the constituency of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (NA-52) and Ajmal Sabir Raja was also an aspirant for the seat.

However, there is a lack of coordination among the local party leaders.

When asked why they did not show their street power, he said it was a membership drive and those who wanted to contest the general elections had displayed posters and banners in the city without coordinating with each other.

“One can see posters and banners installed in different areas by those aspiring for assembly seats,” he said.

The PTI leader said some leaders instead of sitting in the camps tried to make their presence felt in the rally but without any workers.

He said party workers were also annoyed with the local leaders as during the local government elections in city and cantonment areas the local leaders did not consult them before the distributing tickets which is why the party lost the polls.

“The local leaders also failed to give time to the workers or solve their problems during the last five years,” he said.

Meanwhile, traffic jam was witnessed on Murree Road and Iqbal Road only because of the closure of Committee Chowk where a camp had been set up.

However, routine activities continued in Saddar and Raja Bazaar, the main commercial hubs of the city.

“The political hustle and bustle was limited to Committee Chowk where a section of the road from Children’s Park to Maharaja Hotel had been closed. Had there been a large number of people Murree Road and its slip roads would have witnessed traffic jams,” said Mohammad Akhter, a shopkeeper on Murree Road.

Raja Kamran, a resident of Jhanda Chichi, said the residents of cantonment should have been informed in advance about the arrival of Mr Khan but it seemed there was no party organisation in the cantonment area.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2018