SWABI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf senior leader and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser on Monday said the PTI has decided to celebrate Independence Day as Haqeeqi Jashan-i-Azadi and leaders and workers would not call it a protest march.

Earlier, the PTI leaders had said a massive gathering would be held here on August 14 to put pressure on the federal government to release the party’s founder Imran Khan.

Talking to Dawn after attending a meeting at the deputy commissioner’s office along with other lawmakers to discuss the problems of tobacco growers, he said the party had chalked out a plan for holding gatherings on August 14.

He said that the workers would be told that they should bring only national flag and flag of PTI to the gatherings on August 14.

To a question, he said that if the government initiates a crackdown against the PTI leaders and workers across the country, aiming at scuttling their protest, they had also an alternative strategy.

Warns govt against attempts to scuttle party’s Independence Day gatherings

“We want a Pakistan truly envisioned by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. We would uphold the vision of the nation’s father at all costs,” he said.

“The illegal, hybrid, unconstitutional and undemocratic federal government, which is formed on a fake and stolen mandate, has no concern for the people,” he said.

He said due to ‘wrong policies and wrong priorities’ of the federal government the people were confronted with numerous issues.

About the government’s plan to introduce 27th Constitutional Amendment, Mr Qaiser said they had decided to meet senior lawyers and constitutional experts to block such a move.

The PTI MNA demanded fresh elections and transfer of power to the people’s ‘real’ representatives.

Meanwhile, PTI will hold the major Independence Day gathering on the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway.

MEETING: Representatives of tobacco growers have questioned the role of Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) in a sub-committee of the National Assembly.

They raised the issue during a meeting held here on Monday.

The participants regretted that tobacco growers confronted immense problems in selling their produce as their exploitation continued unabated.

They noted that often their produce was downgraded by leaf managers, forcing them to sell it at quite low price.

Mohammad Ali Daqiwal, a representative of growers, accused the PTB of failing to end their exploitation at the hands of different stakeholders in the tobacco supply chain.

PTB secretary Ayaz Khan admitted that the board had one law for companies and another for the farmers, which led to their exploitation.

He, however, asked the deputy commissioner to ensure companies abided by their purchasing quotas.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI MNA Asad Qaiser promised resolving the issues of tobacco growers.

Growers’ representatives asked the companies to also purchase tobacco beyond their quota, as the so-called surplus cost growers dearly as its price was steeply slashed.

However, the companies’ officials didn’t agree, insisting they would stick by their quota.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025