PTI protest keeps Islamabad on edge before next week's SCO meeting

Islamabad, Oct 12 (IANS) Security agencies in Pakistan remain on their toes with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announcing its plan to hold a major protest in Islamabad on October 15, the day SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting kicks off in the country's capital. 

The decision to hold a large-scale protest at D-Chowk was taken at a late-night emergency meeting of PTI's political committee on Friday.

"Pakistanis, get ready to come out for who is in jail for you. The oppressors have cut off all contact with our leader (Imran Khan), put his sisters in jail and took his lawyer. Our leader's life is in serious danger, we have to reach D-Chowk on October 15," Shayan Bashir, PTI's Information Secretary for the Central Punjab Chapter posted on X after the meeting.

Several key foreign dignitaries, including External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar, are scheduled to attend the two-day SCO meeting.

Earlier this month, following a series of violent protests, clashes, arrests, blocking of cellular services and internet, the Pakistan government had handed over the security of Islamabad to the Pakistan Army units officially from October 4 till October 17.

"If you were so concerned with the SCO conference, you should not have been busy manipulating constitutional amendments... Dig roads, put containers but we will march on foot. You must have known by now that barriers do not stop us... We will not be able to stop those who will come out now. Immediate news of Imran Khan's well-being or let's meet at D-Square," warned senior PTI leader and former lawmaker Murad Saeed.

The government led by Shehbaz Sharif has also made it clear that it won't allow the country to be held hostage by the PTI protests.

"The heads of 12 countries who are coming to Pakistan under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be warmly welcomed. All the security arrangements have been completed in this regard, it does not matter if anyone announces a protest. The miscreants should sit at home and take it easy because they will not get any chance to enter into it. SCO will run smoothly," Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on his social media handles.

Interestingly, the local media reported that PTI's emergency meeting took place without the participation of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur whose "disappearance" after leading last week's protest has been questioned by several party workers.

--IANS

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