Both holding public meetings to prove their popularity
ISLAMABAD: After their failure to get the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through sit-ins, differences have surfaced between the PTI chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and both have started holding public meetings to prove their popularity against each other.
According to reports, though the two leaders are not openly criticizing each other, but PAT chief Dr Qadri and his allies are very angry over Imran Khan’s decision for a solo flight by leaving the sit-in and holding public meetings under the pretext of building pressure on the government. They believe that the sit-ins in the Red Zone were having telling impact on the government while the public meetings are routine in politics and the government is now feeing a sense of relaxation.
Sources say that as a result of his annoyance with Imran Khan, Dr Tahirul Qadri has also started addressing meetings and his first one in Faisalabad drew more crowd than Imran Khan.
Sources in the PAT and PML-Q said that all the decisions starting from Lahore march to entry in the Red Zone were taken in consultation with Imran Khan. A time came when Dr Qadri decided to end his sit in before Eidul Azha but on the request of Imran Khan, the PAT chief deferred his decision. However he allowed his followers to leave the Red Zone in phases and this process is going on.
The sources said that when Imran Khan took decision in his Core Committee to hold public meetings along with sit-in, Dr Qadri was not taken into confidence and that resulted in annoyance of the PAT chief.
Dr Qadri held a meeting with Chaudhry brothers and his other allies and put the whole matter before them. After that meeting, Dr Qadri decided to compete with Imran Khan by holding public meetings. The objective was to put pressure on the government on the one hand and to respond to Imran Khan for his solo flight. The sources however said that the purpose behind holding public meetings by Imran Khan was that as the Dharnas have not been able to get the desired results, public meetings were necessary to pave the way for elections.
The PAT chief however believes that the sit-ins could not deliver the desired results because Imran Khan announced the civil disobedience movement that aroused condemnation from all directions and failed. Also the announcement the PTI to hold sit-ins in Lahore and Karachi and the plan for wheel jam across the country also miserably failed.
The sources said that Imran Khan held meetings in Karachi, Lahore and Multan without consulting Dr Tahirul Qadri and that annoyed him. They said that now the two former allies are holding public meetings to prove their popularity rather than pressurising the government.
It is being said that allies of Dr Qadri are pressing him to move ahead according to his strategy and do not trust Imran Khan.INP