CHAKWAL: The local chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will send 5,000 activists to Islamabad to participate in the Azadi March, on August 14.

As most transporters are affiliated with the PML-N, local PTI leaders have been given the task to arrange maximum number of vehicles on their own.

“Although the government is going to seal Islamabad and roads leading to it, scores of our workers and leaders have already reached the capital,” said Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz, PTI district president on Tuesday.

“As we were not able to hire public service vehicles,

because bus stands here are owned by PML-N leaders, we have arranged 300 private vehicles,” he said, adding 5,000 workers would participate in the march from Chakwal.

“Scores of our workers, along with local leaders, have already reached Islamabad where proper arrangements for their stay have been made,” he maintained.

He said party workers had been divided into groups and each group consists of 14 members, while 300 focal persons had been appointed for each group.

“From Talagang, Sardar Mansoor Hayat Tamman, retired Col Sultan Surkhru and Hakeem Nisar would bring more than 2,000 workers while Pir Nisar Qasim has arranged 35 vehicles.

Pir Shaukat Hussain and Chaudhry Ali Nasir Bhatti have made comprehensive arrangements for the march,” said Raja Usman, one of the most active party activists.

Although no local leader of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) was accessible, the party sources said that considerable persons, including women, would participate in the Inqilab March. The PML-N district president Ch Liaquat Ali, who is also party’s MPA from PP-20, termed the PTI and PAT’s proposed marches as an attempt to get power through foul means.

“PTI and PAT know that if PML-N government is allowed to fulfil its five-year-term, the next five years would also be of the PML-N, as mega projects launched by our government would be completed during five years,” he told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2014