Army wants both parties on the table

• ISPR statement urges restraint, asks govt and protesting parties to resolve issues through dialogue ‘in best interest of country’
• Says army deployed in Red Zone to ensure sanctity of State buildings
• PTI and PAT protesters enter Red Zone, make camp outside PM’s Secretariat at midnight after govt exercises restraint and allows them to reach Parliament House
• Imran Khan gives 24-hour ultimatum to govt for meeting his demand, after which his supporters will turn towards PM House 

ISLAMABAD

MIAN ABRAR

As thousands of anti-government protesters affiliated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) made camp near the Prime Minister’s Secretariat at midnight, removing containers and barriers placed between them and security personnel guarding the Red Zone, the country’s powerful military urged both the government and the protesting parties to resolve their issues through dialogue in “the best interest of the country”.

The army’s statement came as the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided not to use force to quell the protests and let the protesters enter the most sensitive area of the federal capital.

Upon reaching PM’s Secretariat, PTI chief Imran Khan told his supporters that they would celebrate “Azadi” for the next 24 hours and then move to Prime Minister’s House in case the PM still refused to submit to the protesters’ demands of stepping down from his office and arrange a re-election.

However, a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media arm of the military, the army urged both sides to exercise restraint and wisdom and resolve the matters on a dialogue table.

“The buildings in the Red Zone are symbols of the State and it should be ensured that their sanctity is not violated. Army troops have been deployed to ensure security of these buildings,” said the statement.

MARCHES BEGIN:

As Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri directed the participants of their Azadi March and Inqilab March, respectively, to start moving towards Parliament House at 7pm, paramilitary Rangers and soldiers from the Pakistan Army’s 111 Brigade took up positions alongside police personnel in the Red Zone which also holds the president and prime minister’s ceremonial homes and many foreign embassies.

The 111 Brigade has often been used to secure Islamabad and in military takeovers.

ISPR sources told Pakistan Today that the troops have been deployed mostly in and around the Diplomatic Enclave, parliament and other sensitive installations and they would only guard those institutions. They are not to deal with the protestors directly in the Red Zone, the sources said.

Two security officials said that a total of 700 troops had been deployed to guard the Red Zone. Another 30,000 members of the country’s security forces were also in the area, authorities said, as shipping containers and barbed wire blocked several roads.

VIOLENCE CANNOT BE TOLERATED:

In the meanwhile, both the government and protesting parties have urged the masses to remain calm as the demonstrators have camped out in Islamabad in two rallies since last week.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed officials of law enforcement agencies to ensure that there was no violence on the participants of the two long marches.

His daughter, Maryam Nawaz, tweeted that the PM had given the directions keeping in view the presence of women and children in the congregations. “Police have been told not to resort to baton charge on participants,” she tweeted.

“Violence can’t be allowed to happen. What is this all we are showing to the world?” Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan pleaded ahead of the march.

“Let us promise that we will remain peaceful,” Qadri asked his followers while Khan also directed his supporters not to trespass into any building.

However, minor clashes were reported between police and PTI and PAT workers at Serena Hotel chowk but the police backed down, preventing the situation from getting out of control.

ARMY CHIEF CALLS ON PM:

Amid the growing tension Tuesday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif also met with Prime Minister Sharif earlier in the day.

In the three-hour-long meeting, the PM reportedly told the army chief that the government is open to political dialogue with both PTI and PAT to call off their protest rallies “but the PAT and PTI leadership have refused to talk”.

He also told the army chief that the government would not use force on the protesters but at the same time it would not allow any person to inflict damage to government property or try to enter the Diplomatic Enclave.

Khan’s PTI has been complaining that Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rigged last year’s elections. Sharif has agreed to set up a judicial commission to probe the allegation but refused to step down. Khan has said he won’t go home without Sharif’s resignation, setting up a possible violent confrontation.

The standoff has raised fears of political instability in Pakistan, which has largely been ruled by dictators since 1947.

Sharif, himself overthrown in the 1999 coup that brought former army chief Pervez Musharraf to power, has been meeting with top advisers ahead of the rally. The government also has invoked a rarely used article in the Constitution allowing the military to introduce martial law if needed.

MARCHES BEGIN:

Addressing his supporters before announcing the start of the march towards Parliament House, PTI chief Imran Khan made the participants promise him that they would remain peaceful and no harm would be inflicted on foreign embassies which come in their way.

“Also promise me that you will take revenge from Nawaz Sharif if anything happens to me during the march for freedom,” Khan told the charged gathering.

The PTI chief said that he would lead the protest into Red Zone to ensure that there was no violence. However he warned the police and the “Gullu Butts” in police uniforms not to provoke the protesters.

“If any of my workers is attacked, I will not spare you, Nawaz Sharif! Even if you flee to London, I’ll bring you back to Pakistan to face justice. If I’m killed, my workers will not spare you,” he said, addressing the premier, adding that he had already informed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar that he was not in a position to control his angry supporters and no attempt should be made by the government to stop them from entering the Red Zone.

Khan said that his party would continue to stage a sit-in outside Parliament House until Sharif steps down besides launching the civil disobedience movement that he had announced two days ago.

He asked government employees to adopt “go slow” policy to make his call for civil disobedience more effective, saying they would be justified in doing so because the incumbent government was “illegal” and had assumed power through rigged polls.

QADRI ANNOUNCES VERDICT OF ‘PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT’:

“Promise no violence…no militancy,” firebrand cleric Tahirul Qadri told his workers as he delivered his speech to an enraptured audience.

The PAT chief justified moving into the Red Zone, narrating how both the PPP and PML-N had held protests in front of the Parliament.

The speech was a combination of calls for “discipline” and calls for “vengeance”.

Qadri claimed that yet another PAT supporter had died in hospital earlier in the day after being targeted in Gujranwala.

“If we don’t avenge their blood, would you like to return?” Qadri asked a highly charged crowd that yelled “No!”.

Qadri then asked the crowd whether they would prefer to protest in front of Parliament House in the Red Zone, to which his supporters yelled, “Yes!”.

“Should the government stay or go?” asked the PAT chief, which was met with loud cries of “Go Nawaz go!”.

The PAT chief reiterated the standing demand for the arrest of the Sharif brothers for “murder, planning and involvement” in the Model Town tragedy.

Pushing the crowd into a frenzy, Qadri shot out question after question in hypnotic rhythm, slamming the government, the PML-N and the existing setup, as well as outlining the PAT’s ideological viewpoint.

“You don’t want to go back? Are you sure? You want a national government? You want these rulers to go? Do you want accountability? Do you want to forgive them? Or arrest them? Do you want implementation of the 12-point agenda? Yes or no? Do you want terrorism to end or not? Do you want extremists and terrorists to stay in our country? Yes to terrorism or no to terrorism?”

The PAT chief called on the government to remove all containers, and asked security forces not to create “bloodshed” in Islamabad.

Upon reaching PM’s Secretariat, Qadri told his supporters that the next three days would be critical.