The suspended office-bearers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday refused to mobilise people for the Islamabad sit-in on Friday. After the departure of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and his followers from the Constitution Avenue, the PTI assigned its local chapters in the Rawalpindi division to bring people to the sit-in turn by turn.
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The Rawalpindi district chapter was supposed to bring people to the sit-in on Friday. The membership of 10 local PTI office-bearers was suspended after they entered into a brawl with Imran Khan’s cousin Ahmed Niazi for not allowing them to enter the container of the PTI chief at the sit-in site. “Around 30 local leaders and active workers had been invited to the roof of the container on Monday. But Ahmed Niazi stopped the PTI district president Arif Abbasi and secretary general Rashid Hafeez along with some workers of the youth wing.
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They called the PTI Punjab north president, Sadaqat Abbasi, to convince Mr Niazi to allow them to enter the container but the latter misbehaved with them,” said a local party worker while talking to Dawn. He said on Tuesday the youth wing workers went to the sit-in and beat up Mr Niazi and two party workers on security duty. However, he said the party leadership took action against the office-bearers without listening to their point of view.
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The party officials tried to contact the local leaders for the mobilisation of workers and supporters but most of them did not receive the calls. After this, the party leaders asked the PTI candidates who lost the 2013 elections to bring people to the sit-in on Friday. However, the local workers and leaders decided not to go to the sit-in to avoid any untoward situation. -dawn
