File photo of Chaudhry Fawad Hussain
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Monday amended the date for the resumption of the party’s ‘Haqiqi Azadi’ long march, saying it will now recommence on Wednesday.
“The long march will resume from Wazirabad the day after tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2 p.m. rather than [the previously announced] Tuesday,” he said in a posting on Twitter after a meeting of the party’s senior leadership in Lahore.
The long march was brought to a halt last week after a gunman opened fire on the container carrying the PTI chief, injuring Khan and several other party leaders. One PTI supporter was also killed in the gunfire. The PTI chief has already announced that the march would reach Rawalpindi 10-14 days after it resumes, adding that he would join the convoys from various parts of the country when they reached the garrison city. “We would then enter Islamabad,” he said, adding that he would address the long march daily via video-link in the interim.
Prior to Fawad’s announcement, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi—who, along with Asad Umar and Pervez Khattak, has been designated by Khan to lead the long march in his absence—address a press conference in Lahore in which he emphasized that it would resume from the same location where Khan had been targeted.
Claiming that all the PTI’s supporters had been informed that the long march would continue until its aims had been achieved, he said the party would protest outside Governor’s House in Lahore at 7 p.m. today (Monday). It is unclear what the PTI is demanding from the governor, especially as it is in a ruling coalition with the PMLQ in the Punjab province.