PTI’s protestors keep protesting with movement fizzling out

Dozens of people turned up at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) rally on Korangi Road on Sunday, but they weren’t the usual crowd the party’s rallies last month seemed to have drawn in.

A lion’s share of the protesters had ventured there from Manzoor Colony, Akhtar Colony and Baloch Colony, located close by. On May 22, after complaints emerged about traffic bottlenecks arising because of the party’s string of rallies at major arteries of the city, PTI announced it would only organise more protests on Fridays and Sundays.

However, with this, the enthusiasm seemed to have adjusted to the new schedule. No longer was there a sea of red and green roaring for fresh elections in the city. Nor were any of them from the upscale areas of the city.

Even those who had placed stamps on the bat seemed to be unaware about what the protesters were there for. Ayaz Khan, who owns a little stall not far from where the protesters had gathered, seemed to be clueless about what was on the agenda. “I voted for PTI, but I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said.

“But they’re all rooting for PTI, so they must be doing something right.”

Israr Abbasi, PTI’s candidate for PS-114, stepped up to justify the show. “These are token demonstrations. We do not wish to cause any inconvenience to the public. But protests are important nonetheless because they are an attempt to get our message across to the government via the media,” he said.

“We have serious reservations about the bogus Sindh Assembly which has emerged as a result of these rigged elections. We also have reservations about Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s mandate in Karachi.”

PTI’s candidate for NA-251 Raja Azhar, who had organised the protest, reiterated the party’s demand for fresh elections in all constituencies of the city. He added PTI was even ready to step down from the National Assembly and provincial assembly seats it had secured from Karachi to set the ball rolling for re-polling.

A protester, Shehzad Khattak, who had turned up at the protest from Manzoor Colony, said, “All we can do now is to peacefully protest against the injustices against us. The change of mandate is quite obvious – PTI won the seats where the election commission had ordered re-polling under the watchful eye of the army.”

Another protester Aurangzeb said, “Rigging took place under the noses of the election commission and the caretaker government. They failed to deploy the army despite people’s requests to do this.”