MARDAN/BAJAUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers on Saturday staged rallies against what they claimed minus-Imran Khan formula, and vowed to resist every bid to keep him out of politics.

Party leaders and workers demonstrated in front of the Mardan Press Club against alleged conspiracies being hatched against their leader.

The protesters were led by PTI lawmakers, including provincial minister Mohammad Atif Khan, Zahir Shah Toru, Abdus Salam Afridi, Mujahid Khan, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada Khan, Ali Mohammad Khan and other key party leaders.

On the occasion, the PTI leaders said they would not accept the ‘minus-one’ formula to keep Imran out of politics. They said they would launch a movement of civil disobedience across the country if Imran was arrested and put behind bars.

They asked the authorities to stop ‘discriminatory’ behaviour with their leader.

They urged the incumbent government to quash ‘false’ cases registered against the PTI chief as he had done nothing wrong. They said Imran was fighting to give ‘real freedom’ to countrymen.

Meanwhile, hundreds of PTI activists from across Bajaur participated in a rally held in the Inayat Kallay Bazaar.

The participants of the rally held on the call of party’s central and provincial leaderships, chanted slogans in favour of Imran Khan and against the federal coalition government.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI district president and MNA Gul Zafar Khan, Ishaq Zia, Dr Hameedur Rahman and others said the PML-N-led federal government was trying to get Imran disqualified and arrested in what they said politically-motivated cases.

They warned that disqualifying Imran Khan would prove to be a blunder ‘as the whole nation stood by the former premier’.

Calling what they said the minus-one formula being hatched against their leader as a conspiracy, the speakers said no one could keep the PTI chairman out of politics.

The speakers said the rising popularity of Imran Khan had scared the ruling parties in the centre, especially the PML-N and PPP, as they feared the PTI would sweep the next general elections.

They said the local party activists would be on the frontline to defend their leader if any punitive step was taken against him.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2022