PESHAWAR: To avoid police action, the Punjab chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Friday held a consultative meeting with the central leadership of the party at the Chief Minister’s House here regarding the party’s planned protest on Nov 24.

PTI’s MPAs, MNAs from Punjab, its youth wing, Insaf Students Federation and the party’s office-bearers at provincial, district and tehsil levels attended the meeting.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur chaired the meeting, which was also attended by PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali, general secretary Salman Akram Raja and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Umar Ayub.

During the meeting, lawmakers and party leadership from Punjab were tasked with bringing 5,000 party workers to Islamabad from the small districts and 10,000 from the big districts, a PTI leader who attended the meeting, told Dawn.

Besides, the office-bearers of the Insaf Youth Wing, ISF, Insaf Lawyers Forum and other organisation of the party were also directed to make all-out efforts to bring maximum number of workers to the Islamabad protest for the release of the party’s founding chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan.

Asked why the lawmakers and party leaders held meeting in KP CM House, the PTI leader said that as the Punjab government didn’t allow such a ‘big’ gathering in the province, the party’s leadership decided to meet in KP for their safety.

The PTI leader said that consultations regarding the preparations for the Islamabad protest would continue for the next two days.

He said that since KP was divided into four regions, a meeting of the two regions would be held today [Saturday], while meeting of the remaining two regions would take place tomorrow [Sunday].

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2024