KP CM heads to Mazar-i-Quaid for PTI rally

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and other senior PTI leaders are on his way to Quaid mausoleum, though the party says that Sindh government has blocked the routes to bar its workers from reaching the venue.

Clashes are being reported between police and PTI workers near Bagh-e-Jinnah resultantly police were resorting to shelling.

PTI leaders are resolute to hold a public gathering at Mazar-i-Quaid in Karachi.

Earlier, in his video message, CM Afridi said the people of Sindh have respected but the Sindh government failed to fulfil its commitment.

He asserted that despite the fake government’s restrictions, PTI leaders and workers will reach Bagh Jinnah in the form of a rally. The people of Karachi have reached the rally place, the rally will be held. 

The rally has been planned as part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s four-day visit to Sindh, who is leading his party’s street mobilisation movement.

PTI spokesperson Mohammad Ali Bozdar told media that police had blocked roads and were not allowing party workers to enter Bagh-i-Jinnah, where the government had allowed the party to hold the rally.

PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh also said in a video statement that the rally would definitely be held at Mazar-i-Quaid today. Criticising the Sindh government for allegedly blocking the rally, he recalled the Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani had welcomed the KP CM at the Karachi airport and presented a Sindh cap and Ajrak to him.

“Was that a pretence?” he questioned, slamming the Sindh government for its “shamelessness”.

On the party‘s decision to hold a gathering outside one of the gate’s of Mazar-i-Quaid, he said, “Holding a rally at a public gate does not block any route.”

The party initially planned to hold the rally at Bagh-i-Jinnah, and the PPP-led Sindh government had even issued a no-objection certificate for it despite objections from the PML-N.

But the PTI blamed the Sindh administration for “wasting their time” and announced that the public meeting would now be held in front of the Quaid’s mausoleum.

In a late-night development, PTI spokesperson Fauzia Siddiqui posted on X that the Sindh government wasted their time as the deputy commissioner East had issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) on Saturday evening at 6:30pm.

Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar warned of strict action if any public meeting was held on the road. “No one is allowed to challenge the writ of the government,” he said in a statement.