PESHAWAR: Hundreds of PTI activists and supporters from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province attended the party’s public meeting in Lahore on Saturday.

Led by MNAs and MPAs from Peshawar, Mohmand and Khyber districts, the PTI workers gathered at the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway Interchange before leaving for Lahore in a convoy headed by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

The chief minister left Peshawar at around 11am and reached Swabi at 1:30pm where the party workers from Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera and other parts of the province also joined him.

The participants from Hazara Division merged into the main procession on the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway after using the Hazara Motorway.

Gandapur leads large convoy from KP to Lahore

The procession comprised around 250 vehicles, including cars, coaches, coasters and buses, according to a journalist who travelled with the convoy.

He told Dawn that many cars had government registration plates.

The journalist said over a dozen ambulances, fire engines and heavy machinery for removing barricades were also part of the convoy.

After arrival in Swabi, the chief minister walked alongside the PTI workers for a while amid sloganeering for their incarcerated leader and former prime minister, Imran Khan.

Their vehicles showcased banners with large pictures of Imran.

A PTI leader told Dawn that the party had already directed its MNAs and MPAs to bring the maximum number of people from their respective constituencies to Lahore’s rally by arranging transport for them.

He said the lawmakers later uploaded videos and workers who gathered in their hujras before departure for Lahore.

Meanwhile, adviser to the chief minister on information and public relations Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif criticised the Punjab government for barricading routes by placing containers on the roads leading to the Lahore rally’s venue, according to a statement issued here.

“The PML-N leaders were so perturbed by the public meeting that hurdles were created to prevent PTI workers and leaders from other parts of the country from participating in the rally,” he said.

The aide to the CM said the Punjab government violated the standard operating procedure for the rally by cracking down on and harassing rally participants, and closing the roads leading to Lahore and rally venue.

He alleged that the Punjab government’s bids to block the rally went to waste.

“If Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz can stop the entry of our [KP] chief minister to Lahore, then her entry to KP may also be stopped,” he said.

Mr Saif said the KP chief minister had the constitutional right to visit all parts of the country.

Meanwhile, scores of PTI workers from Bajaur tribal district attended PTI’s rally in Lahore.

Most of them were youths, who left for Lahore in a convoy of vehicles from Inayat Kallay Bazaar on Saturday morning.

Local PTI MPA Dr Hamidur Rahman and former MNA Gul Zafar Khan led the convoy.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024