KARACHI: A day after the caravan of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) left for Islamabad to attend the opposition’s March 28 rally, a large number of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) activists started their journey to the federal capital on Friday on the call given by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

They are scheduled to take part in a power show to be held on March 27 to support PM Khan ahead of the voting on the no-confidence move filed against him by the opposition.

PTI activists, including women, gathered before noon at Sohrab Goth, where party leaders made brief speeches to build a momentum for the long journey ahead. They called for unity in their ranks before the “final showdown” on March 27 in Islamabad.

A number of buses, cars and vans carrying PTI workers parked along the main Superhighway caused a little disruption in the movement of vehicular traffic for a while.

Those who led different groups of the caravan included Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, PTI’s parliamentary party leader Khurram Sher Zaman, MNA Aftab Siddiqui, and MPAs Saeed Afridi and Shahnawaz Jadoon.

A little before 1pm, the caravan finally started moving towards its destination.

In their addresses to the workers joining in from all over Karachi, the PTI leaders vowed to stay peaceful and respond to “every conspiracy against the PM and Pakistan through their unity and support”.

The opposition leader said: “Thousands of people are now heading towards Islamabad on the call of PM Imran Khan and the whole world will see that Pakistan as a nation is standing by the side of the truth and right.”

“Heinous characters of politics have been exposed and the nation is united against such elements,” he said, adding that whatever had happened in Sindh House, Islamabad was a matter of shame and embarrassment to the province.”

“We have started our journey as an advance party of the PTI’s Sindh caravan and we will welcome those following us to Islamabad,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022