Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday decided to carry on with its mass contact drive on Panama Leaks after learning that Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was reviewing his previous plan of launching rallies with regards to Panama Leaks issue.
Alliance between the opposition parties has been an impediment due to the gulf between the two major opposition parties—PPP and PTI. Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat also called for an alliance between the opposition parties.
A well-placed source in the PTI told this scribe that the party’s core committee—which met under the chairmanship of Imran Khan—was informed that the PPP leadership had conveyed to Shah Mahmood Qureshi that Bilawal’s commitment to lead a mammoth public gathering from Karachi was not certain, as Asif Zardari was against the idea.
The source said that the PTI leadership had earlier been conveyed by the PPP leadership that if Bilawal’s four demands were not met by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Bilawal would lead a rally from Karachi to Sindh-Punjab border, where a huge jalsa would be held.
However, PPP Secretary-General (Punjab) Nadeem Afzal Gondal says that the party did not cancel its plan to have the rallies. He also added that his party did not give such assurance to the PTI. He, however, confirmed that the plan to take out rallies by Bilawal Bhutto was intact; hopefully, the same would be announced today.
“Let’s hope that the party chief would announce rallies today. I am confident that the plan is not cancelled,” he added.
The PTI source, however, feels that their information is correct and the plan was indeed being reviewed by Bilawal.
“We hope that Bilawal would get through with his initial plan. Earlier, Shah Mahmood Qureshi was assured by the PPP leaders that Bilawal would be taking out a big rally from Karachi, and would hold a mammoth jalsa at Sindh-Punjab border if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not fulfil the four demands put forth by Bilawal. It was also told that later Bilawal would hold big public gatherings all across Punjab culminating at Islamabad,” the source said.
However, the source added that Qureshi told the meeting that Asif Zardari had cancelled Bilawal’s plan of taking out a rally from Karachi.
The source said that even the PPP leaders from Punjab—including Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nadeem Afzal Chan and others—who were very active to take out the rally from across Punjab to Islamabad stood devastated.
“The meeting was briefed by Shah Mahmood Qureshi that Asif Zardari had cancelled the rally planned earlier by Bilawal. Now Bilawal is redrafting his speech. It decided, finally, that the PTI would take an independent stance over Panama—which is a national issue,” the source quoted Qureshi as telling the PTI meeting.
The meeting was further informed that following the PPP’s reluctance to carry out a campaign, it was decided to launch a mass contact drive to help keep the Panama issue alive.
“It has been decided that PTI would hold three or four big jalsas after its successful public meeting at Swabi,” the source added.
The source said the party also formed a five-member committee to probe why some party workers, who had won local body polls, had violated the party discipline and voted for other candidates.
“The committee formed to probe the party discipline includes former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Lt Gen (retd) Iftikhar Hussain, Ali Mohammad Khan, Hamid Khan, et al.,” the source said, adding the committee would investigate the matter and submit its recommendations with the party chief within a stipulated timeframe.