KARACHI, APR 16: PTI Chairman Imran Khan is expected to address a much-anticipated rally of the party tonight (Saturday) at Karachi’s Bagh-i-Jinnah.
MPA Shahzad Qureshi said that the stage — set up in the shadow of the Quaid’s mausoleum — “has been built using 100 containers”, adding that “we have never seen such a huge stage for any rally in Karachi.”
A day ago, Khan requested his supporters to carry the Pakistani flag to tonight’s gathering, adding that the “fight now was for the country’s sovereignty and real democracy”. PTI leader Imran Ismail claimed the power show would be the “biggest in Pakistan’s history” and said Khan was expected to speak by 9pm. PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said it didn’t matter whether the PTI was censored, banned or its coverage blocked, the people would still come out for an independent and sovereign Pakistan. Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed the “entire country” would come out to protest and every city would present scenes similar to Karachi — the “heart” of the campaign. “The ones to black out this movement will themselves get blacked out,” he said. On Wednesday, Chaudhry along with PTI leader Hammad Azhar had called for protests across the country every Saturday to “reclaim the freedom lost to the United States of America”.
Security
The Karachi police made detailed security arrangements and as admitted by the PTI leadership, the party extended every possible help for the security.
However, the party itself has a pool of over a thousand volunteers for all arrangements, including security, seating and movement of shuttle service from the designated points to bring families to Bagh-i-Jinnah.
“We have devised a plan. For families, we have asked to take a route that would lead them to Society traffic intersection from where they can enter Bagh-i-Jinnah through Shahrah-i-Quaideen,” Shahzad Qureshi said. “Those coming from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar or through University Road can park their vehicles at the VIP gate of Mazar-i-Quaid.
“Similarly, parking arrangements have been made at Nishtar Park, KGA Ground and China Ground from where a shuttle service would bring the families to the venue.”
The PTI rally is being held less than a week after a storm of people thronged the Millennium Mall traffic intersection from all over the city on the call of the PTI chairman for agitation against his removal from the government via a no-confidence vote.
Even PTI critics and political pundits had no doubt that the PTI through its Saturday rally was going to “prove its Karachi power again”.
The party claimed that the show had already begun and it would not be a “less than a million people crowd” which would roar with its leader at Bagh-i-Jinnah against the “selected government”.
