KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday suspended its Rawalpindi office-bearers who met firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik at the latter’s Faizabad interchange sit-in.
PPP Rawalpindi’s general secretary Sajid Umar, deputy general secretary Banaras Chaudhry and PYO leader Sheikh Hameed were seen with the cleric at the Faizabad Chowk. The Tehreek Labbaik members, led by Khadim Rizvi, have been camping on Faizabad, the main road into Islamabad, hampering the movement of traffic to and from the capital city.
Responding to the meet-up, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman first tweeted that the office-bearers had been served show-cause notices. Later, she wrote that they had been suspended. A PPP spokesperson maintained that the party had not sent an official delegation to the sit-in and the office-bearers had met the cleric on their own.
Both Sajid Umar and Banaras Chaudhry were served notices on PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s directives as their actions were not in line with the party’s ideology and narrative.
