The PTI top leadership arrived in Lahore on Saturday to strategize for its nationwide protest movement, set to peak on August 5, demanding the release of party founder Imran Khan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur termed the Lahore visit as the official launch of the movement. Earlier in the day, party leaders convened a meeting in Islamabad to deliberate on key issues, including the possible disqualification of PTI\u2019s Punjab Assembly members suspended by the speaker. By evening, a caravan of KP lawmakers, led by CM Gandapur and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar, reached Lahore via G.T. Road. During a layover in Jhelum, the KP CM said that the protest had been launched, and the parliamentary meeting in Lahore would mull the final protest strategy to step up the campaign ahead of the two-year anniversary of Imran Khan\u2019s imprisonment on Aug 5. PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said the party\u2019s parliamentarians were going to Lahore for a meeting and added they would discuss the issue of 26 MPAs, suspended by the Punjab Assembly speaker. \u201cThe Punjab government has been unleashing fascism for the past two years, and now it is time that common sense should prevail,\u201d he stressed. Though there were reports that the Punjab police could block PTI parliamentarians\u2019 entry into Lahore, the leaders had said they would stage a sit-in at the blocked point. However, the parliamentarians, led by CM Gandapur, made a smooth entry and camped at a farmhouse in Raiwind, Lahore. The police, however, did raid party leaders and workers\u2019 homes throughout the day and even went to the Shahdra Morr \u2013 Lahore\u2019s entry point on G.T. Road \u2013 and took into custody five leaders, including Yasir Gillani from among those gathered to welcome the PTI caravan. At a late-night party meeting in Raiwand, CM Gandapur told parliamentarians that they had reached the \u2018political hub of the country\u2019 to launch their protest campaign. \u201cAny campaign launched from Lahore earns success and this too will be successful across the country,\u201d he asserted. Asserting that party leader Imran Khan is in jail for no valid reason, CM Gandapur advised party leaders to move forward through consultations and plans in respective jurisdictions to step up the protest campaign. \u201cAll the provinces should prepare their protest plans and implement them in line with their local issues and take the protest campaign to its peak by Aug 5,\u201d he asserted. He said the establishment had been ruling the country for decades and imposed multiple martial laws as part of different experiments, destroying the country. \u201cThe establishment this time has imposed a new kind of martial law, which is not official, but wielding every kind of power and pressure,\u201d he observed and added that it destroyed the country but the perpetrators were not even showing any remorse. At the meeting, Mr Bhachar said Punjab could not warmly welcome CM Gandapur because a \u201cfascist government\u201d was ruling Punjab that even lacked parliamentary as well as social norms. Mr Bhachar said the party\u2019s 11 MPAs were suspended after Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz came to the assembly and her second visit led to the suspension of 26 members. \u201cThis clearly shows the level of fear the Punjab government is facing from PTI\u2019s 107 tigers in the Punjab Assembly,\u201d he asserted. \u201cThough the PTI leaders and workers are facing thousands of FIRs, the party is all set to launch a massive protest campaign aimed at the release of Imran Khan, his wife and all political leaders,\u201d he added. While the PTI parliamentarians have camped in Lahore, the party\u2019s Punjab chapter, led by Aliya Hamza Malik, had already mobilised party workers across the province and assigned duties to step up the protest campaign and take to its pinnacle on August 5. Before leaving for Lahore, the party\u2019s interim chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, while talking to media persons, said that the party had already sent a letter to the provincial government stating that it would hold a meeting in Lahore. However, he made it clear that the party was not planning to hold any rally or public meeting in the provincial capital. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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