Former military strongman General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) was forced to cancel a public meeting in London on Sunday after a dispute erupted between party leaders and the rally’s organisers, making it the second such event to be cancelled in a week’s time, according to a Geo News report.
According to the report, the meeting was scheduled for Sunday in Slough and public invitations were issued but on the same day the Pakistan Awareness Campaign held a protest against the APML leader outside 10 Downing Street and handed over a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May’s office.
The event, organised by APML in association with Zam Zam Education centre in Slough, was cancelled just a week after Musharraf’s talk at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) was cancelled after Pakistani activists started a campaign against the former military ruler’s appearance forcing the university to announce that it had been misled and was not informed about the nature of the event.
In a public fallout, Pir Ali Pasha of Zam Zam Education Centre said Musharraf will come to the hall and chair the public meeting and answer questions of participants. He announced that Musharraf was his friend and had asked him to organise the event.
After Musharraf’s SOAS appearance was cancelled, the APML said Musharraf will only make a “telephonic address” at Pir Pasha’s centre and that he [Pasha] was using the occasion to drum up his own publicity.
In a statement, APML UK chief Tebraiz Aurah said Musharraf’s Sunday event was “postponed due to extraordinary public interest in Musharraf’s jalsa”. He added that a new date and time for the event will be announced.
However, an APML official told the TV channel that less than 20 party activists from across the UK agreed to attend the meeting but it turned out that dozens of activists opposed to Musharraf had planned to disrupt Musharraf’s speech.
Musharraf’s second event in UK cancelled within a week: report
