AAMIR SAEED & FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: The leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has formulated a strategy to keep sustained pressure on the government through rallies and public gatherings with the objective of compelling it to accept the opposition’s terms of reference (TORs) for the judicial commission on Panama Papers.

Both the parties also claim to have secured support of Pakistan Peoples Party, the major opposition party in the National Assembly that also enjoys a majority in the Senate, for their rallies to enhance pressure on the government.

“We will maintain pressure on the government through rallies and public gatherings till an independent commission is constituted to probe Panama leaks,” said PTI spokesperson.

He said PPP representatives including Sardar Latif Khosa and Mian Manzoor Wattoo together with their workers would also join them in protest against the government. “In the past the PTI was accused of making a solo flight, but this time we have managed the support of all major opposition parties including the PPP against the government,” the spokesperson said.

He further maintained that his party was also a signatory of the bill that Senator Aitzaz Ahsan was going to table in the Senate on investigation into revelations made in the Panama leaks.

The PTI has named its movement against the government ‘Tehreek-e-Ehtesab’, the PAT as ‘Tehreek-e-Qasas’ and both the parties would demonstrate against the government on Saturday, September 3, in Lahore and Rawalpindi respectively.

Workers of both the parties would also participate in each other’s rallies, besides participation of the PPP, PML-Q, Jamat-e-Islami, Awami Muslim League, Sunni Ittehad Council and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), sources further contended.

PPP Central Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira, JI leader Mian Aslam, PML-Q Senator Kamil Ali Agha and spokespersons of MWM and Sunni Ittehad Council confirmed to Business Recorder that they were participating in the PTI and PAT rallies.

The PTI rally in Lahore will start from Shahdra and conclude at Charing Cross where the speeches of the leaders would focus on pressurizing the government to agree to the opposition parties unanimous TORs for a judicial commission to probe Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

The PTI is scheduled to hold a ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ public gathering in Karachi’s Nishtar Park on September 6 as part of its continuing campaign against the federal government.

The PTI Spokesperson said that Chairman PTI Imran Khan would leave for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj after the Karachi public gathering, but a detailed schedule of upcoming events will be announced in Karachi.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, PAT Secretary General, told Business Recorder, that all arrangements for a sit-in in Rawalpindi on Saturday had been completed and a no-objection certificate from the district administration had also been obtained for the purpose.

“We will continue our struggle against the government till families of Model Town victims get justice,” he said, adding that support of all opposition parties, especially the PPP, had helped boost morale of the PAT workers.

Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst, however, said PTI and PAT wanted to oust the government through sustained pressure. “The PTI and PAT rallies would definitely build pressure on the government, but they are unlikely to get the required results,” he said.