PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and other lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf from the province on Wednesday vowed to attend their party’s Oct 4 rally at D-Chowk in Islamabad “at all costs” and announced that they would reach the federal capital even if it took them several days.

They also warned authorities that if they’re stopped from entering Islamabad, they would retaliate.

The PTI leaders, including MNAs, MPAs and office-bearers from Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar and southern regions, gathered in a meeting, which the chief minister chaired here to chalk out a strategy for participation in the D-Chowk protest.

Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan had ordered countrywide rallies for the “independence of judiciary.”

Warn they will retaliate if force used against them

Mr Gandapur, who was accompanied by PTI leaders and workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, failed to attend a party’s rally in Rawalpindi last Sunday due to road blockades and use of tear gas by law-enforcement agencies. They returned from Burhan Interchange on the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway after the police refused to allow them to advance.

A participant of Wednesday’s PTI meeting told Dawn that party heads from all regions of the province as well as the chief minister expressed their determination to reach Islamabad’s D-Chowk on Oct 4 “come what may.”

Mr Gandapur, who is also the provincial president of the PTI, directed the party’s lawmakers and leaders to take essential supplies along on the way to Islamabad and said they would try to reach D-Chowk at all costs, even if it took two or three days.

He also asked them to mobilise the maximum number of workers from their constituencies for the Islamabad rally.

The participants said they would remain peaceful in their movement towards Islamabad and won’t violate the law, but if they were stopped or force was used against them, then they would be responded in the same manner.

“Enough is enough. We won’t tolerate the police’s brutalities any longer,” another participant told Dawn.

The meeting decided that PTI leaders and workers from Peshawar and adjoining districts would gather at the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway before leaving for Islamabad at 10am next Friday, with the chief minister leading the procession.

A PTI MPA from Swat district told Dawn that he and other lawmakers and office-bearers had been directed by the leadership to use the Swat Expressway to join the main procession in Swabi.

He added that the PTI’s vehicular convoy from Hazara region would join the main procession on the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway after taking the Hazara Motorway.

Sources in the ruling party told Dawn that cranes and excavators would be used to remove barriers, while fire engines would also be part of the procession. They added that the participants had been asked to bring facemasks and water bottles to lessen the impact of tear gas.

On Sunday, Mr Gandapur, in a video message shared on social media, had warned law- enforcement agencies that if they fired one bullet in next rallies, the PTI activists would respond with ten.

“Today, I formally announce the start of a revolution as we have no other solution to the current crisis,” he said in the message.

The chief minister said enough was enough.

“We have shown much restraint after the violation of the sanctity of our homes,” he said.

Mr Gandapur criticised the Punjab police for what he claimed firing countless tear gas shells and bullets at the PTI workers entering Punjab via the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway.

He added that two PTI workers suffered injuries due to the firing by the Punjab police and 50 due to tear gas shells.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024