Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami Muslim League (AML) vowed to go ahead with their planned protests against the government, police and opposition activists clashed at Rawalpindi’s Committee Chowk near the Lal Haveli residence of Sheikh Rashid.
Police fired teargas shells at Committee Chowk to disperse the party workers from gathering following the imposition of Section 144 in the twin cities.
Sheikh Rashid arrives at Committee Chowk on motorcycle
AML Chief Sheikh Rashid arrived at Rawalpindi’s Committee Chowk to address his supporters on a motorbike.
“Arrest me I am right here and ready,” Rashid said while addressing his supporters.
Senior PTI leaders, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen, Asad Umar, Sheerin Mazari and Aleem Khan, held a crucial meeting with the party chairman at his Bani Gala residence in Islamabad.
According to reports, the meeting discussed a strategy in wake of the harassment of PTI workers who are being stopped from entering into Islamabad to take part in the party’s upcoming sit-in in the capital.
Further, PTI chief is expected to address a press conference in a short while in which he will announce his party’s strategy.
Imran, who led a weeks-long occupation that paralysed the government quarter of Islamabad in 2014 after rejecting Nawaz’s runaway election win, has vowed to contest orders banning public gatherings in court but has hinted his supporters would march on the capital next week regardless of what the judiciary decides.
A top administrative official in Rawalpindi has also banned protests in the city. Imran is also due to attend a rally for a political ally, Sheikh Rashid of the Awami Muslim League, on Friday afternoon in Rawalpindi.
Officials, however, appear to be resolute that the ban will be enforced, setting PTI on a collision course with authorities.
“It is not legal to hold a gathering (in Rawalpindi) right now, so we will try to stop him if he tries to go there,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, the top administrative official in Islamabad.
Naeem Iqbal, a police spokesperson, said that police had been deployed to surround Khan’s Islamabad home.
The rising tensions come at an awkward time for Nawaz, with relations between his ruling PML-N party and military strained over a newspaper leak about a security meeting that angered army officials.
Police on Thursday swooped on an indoor youth rally by PTI in Islamabad, beating activists with batons and detaining 38 people.
Police said the rally contravened a city order issued hours earlier to ban all public gatherings in the capital ahead of next week’s protests.
“Police manhandled our women and our boys. Because of that, Imran Khan has called for nationwide protests,” a spokesperson from PTI’s media team said.
PTI chief has warned officials that arresting him would only enrage his supporters and bolster his party’s resolve to lock down Islamabad.
Authorities have blocked main roads leading to the Rawalpindi rally with shipping containers. The rally site has also been obstructed by trucks and containers, blocking PTI supporters from gathering en masse.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Ahmed said PTI would need a permission in the form of a “No Objection Certificate” (NOC) if it plans to host any events, including Wednesday’s shutdown strike.
“You need an NOC for anything – whether it’s a media function or a marriage function. Even for a birthday party of more than five people, you need an NOC,” he told a foreign media agency.
Imran has said next week’s protests will bring a million people to the streets.
He has said that sit-ins would force the closure of schools, public offices and the main international airport.
At the centre of Imran’s latest challenge to Nawaz’s government are leaked documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm that appear to show that Nawaz’s daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Sharif’s family denies wrongdoing.
Holding offshore companies is not illegal in Pakistan, but Khan has implied the money was gained by corruption.
Imran acknowledged in May that he used an offshore company to legally avoid paying British tax on a London property sale.
The ruling party has dismissed Imran’s plans to shut down Islamabad as a desperate move by a politician whose popularity is waning ahead of the next general election, likely to be held in May 2018.
“Pakistan is going towards becoming a developed country, and the opposition is worried that if this system of development continues until 2018, then by then their politics will be finished,” said PM Nawaz at a gathering of party workers on Friday.
