Islamabad, August 20 – Pakistan protesters reached the Islamabad parliament building in the early hours of Wednesday morning in their bid to force the prime minister to resign, but did not immediately go inside.
Reuters journalists saw protesters on their way to parliament wearing hard hats and tough leather gloves using cranes and bolt cutters to move aside barricades of shipping containers and barbed wire.
Cleric Tahir ul-Qadri and opposition politician Imran Khan both want Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign. The government has allowed protests in the capital but said they would not be permitted to march on parliament.
Unfazed by army deployment, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and Qadri marched towards the Parliament demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation, putting the PML-N-led government on the backfoot.
Police baton-charged Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) protesters as they neared the Parliament. “PTI workers injured by Police baton charge ahead Serena chowk…Ambulance called there for first Aid,” the PTI party said on twitter.
Anti-government protestors entered the Red Zone, even as clashes took place between them and the police at Serena Chowk where they removed shipping containers, Dunya TV reported.
Police was not putting up stern resistance and slowly retreated as part of policy to avoid violence. The protestors of Khan and Qadri started separately but later were moving towards the Parliament together.
Information minister Pervaiz Rashid told Geo TV that the marchers have violated written commitment that they will not enter the Red Zone. “They have women and children with them. So the government has decided to show maximum restraint. They want dead bodies but we will not give them the opportunity despite provocations,” he said.
Red alert was issued at capital’s Polyclinic Hospital and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the two leading state-run medical facilities. Arrangements for additional medicines, emergency operations and extra beds were also made at the two hospitals.
“I’m coming! I’m coming to hold you accountable!” Khan said, as his vehicle progressed towards the Red Zone. Anti-government protesters were armed with wire cutters and cranes accompanied them to remove containers. Prime Minister Sharif has said he will not resign under any circumstance, Dawn News reported quoting sources.
As the protesters marched towards the Parliament, Sharif was present inside the official residence in the ‘Red Zone’ along with senior leaders of his ruling PML-N party. He is personally keeping a tab on the developing situation.
Qadri was headed towards the Parliament in his bullet-proof car while Khan mounted on a truck with his party leaders.. Army contingents had taken positions in the Red Zone with the 111 Brigade — often been used to secure Islamabad as well as used in military takeovers — deployed in the area. Drones also covered the march as it advanced.
The PTI chief strictly prohibited the protesters from entering into or occupying any building located in the Diplomatic Enclave including the Parliament House. “We will only march peacefully towards the ‘illegal’ Parliament House and stage a sit-in in front of it. We will convert the Red Zone into the Green Zone,” he said.
“Our Azadi March is constitutional & democratic,” the cricketer-turned-politician, who spent the night in a shipping container at the site of the sit-in, said. Khan is protesting the alleged vote rigging in last year’s polls. In the polls, Sharif’s PML-N had won 190 out of 342 seats. Khan’s PTI got 34 seats, the third largest bloc in the legislature.
Security was tightened in the area after Khan called on marchers to enter it to stage a peaceful protest in the ‘fake’ (National) assembly and ‘fake’ Prime Minister House.
More than 40,000 security personnel had been deployed to protect the sensitive areas. Earlier, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said the government has decided to hand over the security of the ‘Red Zone’ to army to prevent protesters from entering it.
“We have decided to hand the security of Islamabad’s Red Zone to the army,” he said. Nisar said the three-layered security cordon of police, paramilitary Rangers and army will protect any breach of the ‘Red Zone’.
The announcement came after Army Chief General Raheel Sharif met the Prime Minister to discuss the security of the sensitive area in the capital. They agreed to deploy army to keep peace in the ‘Red Zone’.
As some diplomatic missions expressed reservations over the security arrangements, the Foreign Office briefed the foreign diplomats and assured them that government will provide them full security, Nisar said. Khan’s party yesterday decided to withdraw its lawmakers from the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Meanwhile, Qadri also announced that he will set up an alternate Parliament to press Sharif to quit and refused to meet the PML-N government-appointed committee of lawmakers to hold talks with him. He presented his agenda before the charged crowd and asked them to say ‘yes or no’ and they resounded approval through big ‘yes’.
– INDIA TODAY
