RAWALPINDI: Even with frustration growing among the local cadres of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Imran Khan is adamant to continue the party’s nearly two-month-old sit-in in neighbouring Islamabad until its declared objective of forcing out the Nawaz Sharif government is achieved.

Local PTI leaders say they conveyed the “public sentiment against the lengthening sit-in,” and the tired party workers’ request to call it off, to the party chief when they visited him last week to greet him on Eidul Azha festival. But he advised them to “wait for some more time”.

Also read: PTI workers asked to continue sit-in for two more weeks

“We told our leader that our workers and supporters belong to the middle class. They feel they had neglected their jobs and families for too long. In their view only people belonging to the elite class can afford a protracted sit-in,” a senior leader of the local PTI said, requesting anonymity.

PTI District President and MPA Arif Abbasi confirmed to Dawn the meeting and the conversation with Imran Khan at his Bani Gala mansion.

Abbasi said the local leaders, including all the six PTI MPAs elected to the Punjab Assembly from Rawalpindi region, conveyed him that workers and supporters think that the party’s successful rallies in other cities of the country had created space for ending the sit-in in Islamabad and adopting other methods to pressure the government to pack up.

But they kept silent when “no positive response” came from their strong-headed party chief. “Decisions are taken by the Core Committee of the chairman and all other PTI bodies have just to implement them,” said Abbasi.

“While our workers are not as enthusiastic as before, we are trying to convince all that the outcome of our sit-in will come within a few days or weeks,” he said.

Since returning glum from the Eidul Azha meeting with the party chief, senior leaders of the Rawalpindi chapter of the party have been avoiding visiting the sit-in outside the Parliament House in Islamabad.

One of them candidly admitted that most of them are businessmen and their regular attendance to make the sit-in a success has been hurting their businesses.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014