Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja said on Wednesday that his party was formulating a strategy to organise peaceful protests and public rallies in the country, maintaining that the country’s politics is not a “guerilla warfare”.
“We will move forward with wisdom and planning,” said Raja in a statement today. He added that they have no intentions to take the law into their hands.
Responding to criticism by some quarters on the PTI leadership, Raja termed the people “miscreants” who are questioning the top leaders for not establishing a protest camp outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail for the release of the former premier Imran Khan.
The senior lawyer said that his party would not take any step that could backfire, adding that they were not planning to break the law.
He also clarified that the former ruling party would not act at anyone’s behest or on someone else’s order.
Ruling out possibilities of agitation, Raja said that the national politics was not some kind of “gorilla warfare”. He added that his party would prepare a strategy for upcoming protests to protect workers’ lives.
Since Khan’s ouster from power, the PTI organised a series of anti-government protests in the past, however, they ended up abruptly following violent clashes between the protesters and law enforcers.
The party’s protest after Khan’s arrest in 2023 turned violent as several government and military installations were targeted by the protesters on May 9, leading to arrests and military trials of the accused.
The country once again witnessed fierce clashes between law enforcers and demonstrators when PTI held a protest rally on November 26, 2024, in Islamabad.
Raja went on to say that he was “very clear about what the PTI founder wants” after he held a separate meeting with the ex-premier in the Adiala jail in the presence of Bushra Bibi. However, he refused to disclose details of the meeting with the media.
The PTI secretary-general reiterated that they will not get the party founder out of jail via any type of deal only but through the law and Constitution.
He termed questions raised against the PTI leadership for the lack of efforts for Khan’s release “provocative”. However, he took back his statement following the journalists’ protest for calling their questions “provocation”.
He claimed that there was a fight going on in the country for democracy and human rights. Anyone who joins the struggle will not be doing a favour, said Raja, and invited the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and other opposition parties to join the PTI.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Imran Khan-founded party expedited efforts to form a grand opposition alliance to launch an anti-government movement after Eid ul Fitr following the incarcerated party founder’s directives.
The coalition of several opposition parties, under the banner of the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), also held their two-day conference last month.
The opposition alliance stressed the need for a national dialogue to steer the country out of the economic and political crises amid the “worsening” situation.
The moot held the “rigged” February 8, 2024 general elections responsible for the ongoing economic, political and social crises facing the country.
The opposition’s moot demanded to abolish all amendments that contradict the spirit of the Constitution. The conference called the “rampant violation of constitutional and human rights” a complete negation of the rule of law in the country.
