Dharna trio Imran Khan, Sheikh Rasheed, Qadri to watch Pak-India match in Kolkata

Leaders of opposition parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami Muslim League (AML) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) will be in rival India on Saturday to catch one of the best cricket rivalries.

AML chief Sheikh Rasheed left for India earlier today to watch Pakistan-India clash in ICC World T20 in Kolkata. PTI chairman Imran Khan, while talking to the media in Bani Gala said that AML chief was supposed to leave with him but he went by himself.

PAT leader Dr Qadri is already in India to attend an international sufi conference.

While talking to the media before leaving, Awami Muslim League chief said that he has always maintained contact with opposition leaders Imran Khan and Dr Qadri and there is nothing of the sort as being projected.

AML chief termed Indo-Pak clash ‘final match’ of the International Cricket Council World Twenty20 2016. Rasheed said that he would return to Pakistan the next day after the match.

On the occasion, Rasheed criticised leaders of the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for having to eat their words after former president Pervez Musharraf was permitted by the Supreme Court (SC) to travel abroad.

To add to the situation, Imran Khan’s ex-wife Reham Khan is also likely to watch the match as she is there in India for a conference.

Khan addressed media questions at Bani Gala residence and said that he is unaware of Dr Qadri’s presence in India. Denouncing the alleged secret agenda of D-Chowk sit-in alliances, Khan said that there is nothing one could not say in Pakistan for which he needs to be in India.

He also criticised Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif for ‘letting’ former dictator Musharraf leave the country. PML-N leaders had vowed to not let Musharraf leave, he added.

Pakistan and India are supposed to meet in Eden Gardens tomorrow for World T20 match. Tensions have prevented the two sides from playing each other in Tests for more than a decade, and the match is only happening because the World T20 is an International Cricket Council tournament.

Eden Gardens is one of the world’s biggest grounds, even after a recent refit which reduced capacity to 66,000.

The match is expected to be watched by hundreds of millions of television viewers, including in the Indian Occupied Kashmir where many residents will be rooting for Pakistan.