ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders and workers on Saturday held protests at 36 places across the country to give a loud and clear message to the government that they would not accept the ‘minus-one formula’.

The protests were held on the call of PTI Central Sec­retary General Asad Umar, who urged PTI workers and people to gather at 36 places to express solidarity with their leader Imran Khan.

On his direction, big screens were installed at those places on which Mr Khan’s address to PTI public gathering in Gujranwala was shown live.

People gathered at Rawalpindi’s Murree Road, Islamabad F-9 Park, Hashtnagri Chowk in Peshawar, Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Quetta Press Club, at Lahore’s Liberty market roundabout and chanted slogans “Minus-one formula na-manzoor” and later listened to the party chief’s address.

Similarly, party activists also staged protest demonstrations at Swabi Chowk in Swabi, Mardan Press Club, Shobra Chowk in Nowshera and Khyber Chowk Bara in Khyber, Insaf House Baksh­apur in Kandhkot, Khairpur Press Club, Sukkur Insaf House, Hyderabad Press Club and Ghotki, Insaf Secretariat in Sheikhupura, PTI office in Qamber Shahdad Kot, Satellite Town in Chiniot, Laiba Chowk in Renala Khurd, Jogi Chowk in Sahiwal, Ghanta Ghar in Faisalabad, Khanewal’s Milad-i-Mustafa Chowk, Sargodha’s Khayyam Chowk, Pakpattan’s Nagina Chowk and Layyah’s old Baloch Ada, Multan’s Chungi No 9, Wahari Municipality at Saraiki Chowk in Bahawalnagar, Kachhari Chowk in Muzaffargarh, PTI secretariat in Lodhran, City Chowk in Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan Traffic Chowk, PTI secretariat in Rajanpur and Dua Chowk in Rahim Yar Khan.

In a statement, PTI Central Information Secretary Farrukh Habib said people were standing with Mr Khan and they would give a befitting reply to the government for its “nefarious and malicious” conspiracy of “minus-one” against Imran Khan.

He said the real freedom movement was gaining strength with each passing day, as it was evident from the huge crowds listening to their party chief. He said Mr Khan neither believed in seizing power through backdoors nor any conspiracy, as his real strength was the support of the people. The “imported government” plunged the country into worst crisis and the time was ripe to purge the country of “imported rulers”, he added.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2022