ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) political committee on Saturday announced party decision to hold a power show in the federal capital on the eve of Independence Day.

The decision to hold the ‘impressive’ power show on August 13 was taken at a meeting, chaired by PTI Chairman Imran Khan and attended by its leadership Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari, Omar Ayub, Saifullah Niazi and others.

Participants in the meeting also decided to challenge the prohibited funding case at the earliest. They discussed the political situation and reviewed legal aspects regarding by-elections in nine constituencies.

According to party sources, Mr Khan at the public meeting may give an ‘ultimatum’ to the coalition government to hold fresh elections and that is why direction has been given [to party leaders] that there should be very impressive show of power.

Ex-minister and PTI leader Farrukh Habeeb also announced the public meeting through a post on social media.

The PTI had earlier decided that Mr Khan would be lone candidate from the PTI for all nine seats of National Assembly during the upcoming by-elections. The nine seats are among the 11 vacated after acceptance of resignations of PTI MNAs by the National Assembly speaker, and their de-notification, last week. The announcement that Mr Khan will contest from all nine constituencies first came from PTI’s official Twitter account on Friday, and was later confirmed by the party’s senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry a presser.

The party leadership was also briefed on legal strategy related to cases and resignations of the lawmakers.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022