Muhammad Zubair. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Ain-e-Pakistan (TTAP) will conclude its three-day Sindh outreach on Sunday (today) with a multi-party conference in Karachi, even as organisers complain that all suitable venues were denied to them, leaving the Karachi Press Club as the only available option.
Former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair said the conference, which is billed as an All Parties Conference, would be held at the press club “for the want of any other suitable place”, after repeated refusals by the district administration to allow the use of halls or hotels for an opposition gathering.
TTAP leaders were in Sindh over the weekend as part of their February 8 mobilisation campaign and spent Saturday in interior Sindh, where they held a rally in Jamshoro.
According to the alliance leadership, their convoy was stopped multiple times before being allowed to proceed, while rally participants were forced to vacate roads that had been blocked by the provincial government.
During the tour, TTAP leaders met Qaumi Awami Tehreek chief Ayaz Latif Palijo, who formally announced his party’s decision to join the TTAP movement, according to spokesperson Akhundzada Hussain.
The Hyderabad leg of the visit concluded with a dinner hosted at the residence of a PTI MPA.
On Sunday, TTAP will participate in the multi-party conference alongside opposition parties, eminent scholars, lawyers and media personalities.
Zubair Umar said the Karachi Press Club was the only venue available, despite lacking sufficient space for a gathering of this scale.
He said securing a no-objection certificate (NOC) was mandatory for holding events at halls or hotels, and obtaining an NOC for an opposition conference from the district administration was “out of the question”.
At one stage, he added, it appeared even the Press Club venue might slip away after organisers were informed of a family event being scheduled there.
Besides TTAP, which already includes major opposition parties such as PTI, MWM, Awaam Pakistan and other regional parties, representatives of additional national and regional parties, economists, lawyers, women activists and media figures are expected to attend the event. TTAP spokesperson Akhundzada Hussain said a street mobilisation plan was also under consideration, though no decision had yet been finalised.
Responding to reports that TTAP intended to open a secretariat in Punjab, he said there was nothing decided so far.
However, a PTI office-bearer said the alliance was considering establishing a Punjab secretariat to advance its mobilisation drive.
The official added that TTAP’s status as a relatively neutral platform afforded it greater operational space compared to PTI, which he said remained constrained by internal infighting.
