LAHORE: Lack of coordination, communication and rifts have led to a poor show of power by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan in NA-120 at Qurtaba Chowk, though PTI’s top brass denies it.
Chaudhry Safdar, campaign in-charge of PTI’s Fan Road office, located opposite the Punjab Bar Council and expected candidate for provincial assembly seat, said that the top party leadership had not properly communicated about Imran Khan’s power show at Qurtaba Chowk. “We were partially informed a day before the rally that Imran Khan is coming at Qurtaba Chowk. Aleem Khan just told party workers on September 6 while leading a motorcycle rally that Imran Khan will be holding a public meeting on September 8. It was inappropriate to convey us in this way.”
Safdar claimed that he had planned to go to the rally along with 500 to 600 supporters. In this scenario of haste, he said, “I could hardly manage 200 workers to the rally.”
Safdar further said that only residents of NA-120 participated in the Qurtaba Chowk rally of Imran Khan.
“No one from outside the NA-120 was invited to attend the public meeting against the previous practice where people from across the country used to come and attend the rally.”
PTI leader Ijaz Chaudhry said that the notion that Imran Khan’s power show was a flop is mere a propaganda. “The PML-N leaders have launched a campaign against Imran Khan. The people of Lahore love Imran Khan.”
“Imran Khan is coming in Lahore in a day or two and will lead a motorcycle rally in NA-120 on September 14. He will stay in Lahore till September 17. The rivals will get an answer to their false and baseless propaganda,” he said.
According to the sources, internal rifts within the party led to the poor power show of Imran Khan at Qurtaba Chowk. Aleem Khan has distanced himself from the NA-120 campaign and he is not financially supporting the election campaign, the sources added. PTI leaders Chaudhry Sarwar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi have formed their own group and they are not actively participating in the campaign, though Ch Sarwar has now come back and is participating in the campaign after the poor show of power in the PTI rally, the sources further said. The sources claimed that only PTI candidate Yasmin Rashid and Andleeb Abbas are actively running the campaign.
“The Lahore chapter leadership of the party was reportedly outside the meeting chaired by Imran Khan a day before the rally. How could have they actively and wholeheartedly participated in the rally?,” the sourced said.
Imran Khan has expressed anger over the Lahore leadership of the party for organising a poor show of power in Qurtaba Chowk.
PTI’s Yasmin Rashid will go head-to-head with PML-N’s Kalsoom Nawaz, the wife of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on September 17, as campaign from both sides is in full swing in NA-120.
