LAHORE/ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR/QUETTA: Most of the markets in Lahore and Islamabad were open on Sunday, despite a strike call by opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP) in protest of alleged discrepancies in the 2024 general elections.
The PTI — a part of the TTAP — had announced a strike today to mark the second anniversary of the Feb 8, 2024 general elections, which it alleges were marred by rigging. The party also said it will observe a day of mourning following Friday’s suicide bombing at an imambargah in Islamabad that claimed at least 36 lives.
A partial shutdown was observed in Peshawar, while a complete shutdown strike was reported in Quetta. In Lahore, all major markets remained closed, primarily due to Sunday and the ongoing Basant festival.
In the evening, the TTAP could not hold a torch-bearing rally outside Islamabad’s Faisal Mosque as planned, claiming road closures and the arrest of over two dozen workers.
Despite the alleged arrests of over two dozen workers — including eight women — and road closures, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, ex-senator Mushtaq Ahmed, as well as TTAP leaders Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Akhunzada Hussain Ahmed Yousafzai and Amir Mughal managed to reach the site.
Mughal, the PTI’s Islamabad chapter president, alleged that police had already started a crackdown against the party workers. He claimed that over two dozen workers, including eight women, were taken into custody from Sector E-7, where Faisal Mosque is located.
However, police sources did not confirm the arrest of any PTI worker.
Speaking to the media, Abbas criticised the Punjab government for “supporting Basant and dance parties” in the wake of the Islamabad imambargah attack. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had cancelled her Basant-related activities following the incident.
“The law enforcement agencies failed badly to provide security to the masses, and that is why such a huge number of people lost their lives,” Abbas added.
Meanwhile, Khokhar said, “It is the start of the movement and should not be considered as a one-day event.”
He asserted that the movement will soon gain further momentum and stated that the whole nation was worried about PTI founder Imran Khan’s health.
In his remarks, Ahmed termed Pakistan’s possible participation in the upcoming meeting of the United States-led Board of Peace as “unfortunate”.
Yousafzai claimed that the shutter-down strike was successful in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and interior Sindh. “However, it was partially successful in Punjab, Karachi and Hyderabad,” he acknowledged.
Earlier in the day, the TTAP and PTI shared purported visuals of shops shut in various cities, including KP’s Peshawar, Abbottabad, Balakot, Haripur, Bajaur, Upper Chitral and Lakki Marwat; Sindh’s Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Badin and Nawabshah; Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin, Mianwali, Muzaffargarh; and Balochistan’s Quetta, Chaman, Zhob, and Kuchlak.
It also posted videos showing PTI workers and supporters gathered in KP’s Kohat, as well as Balochistan’s Nasirabad, Qila Saifullah, Chaman and Pishin.
KP
In KP, the PTI said it would hold rallies and processions at district and tehsil levels. Some traders and transport unions also agreed to join the party’s protest.
A Dawn correspondent reported a partial strike was being observed in Peshawar’s interior city. Shops in Qissa Khwani Bazaar and other streets of the interior city were mostly open, but those in Hashtnagri and Rampura were closed.
PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan said in a post on X that there was a shutter-down strike in Haripur Bazaar and a “total public transport wheel jam”.
He expressed his gratitude to “all traders associations and transport associations of Haripur for their cooperation in showing solidarity” with TTAP’s call.
PTI district president Irfan Saleem said workers in Peshawar would gather in the Hashtnagri area around noon before marching through the city. He said a rally at Chowk Yadgar would be addressed by party leaders.
PTI’s chapter arranged a gathering at Chowk Yadgar in the afternoon. Seating arrangement and panaflex boards could be seen at the venue prior to the event, with PTI banners hanging in front of closed shops.
PTI KP Deputy Information Secretary Ikram Khatana had said party workers would gather at Hashtnagri Chowk around 12pm and later march through Rampura Bazaar to reach Chowk Yadgar.
All the district chapters across the province were to arrange events, according to Khatana.
In Okara, police arrested 30 PTI workers ahead of Sunday’s protests.
PTI’s Mehr Abdul Sattar was detained for seven days under the MPO Ordinance. Police also raided the house of PTI-backed MNA Usama Hamza in Gojra, but he was not found.
Sindh
All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir told Dawn that although markets were shut, the reason was that it was a public holiday.
He said 100 markets at Jodia Bazaar, 50 markets in Saddar, 40 markets on Tariq Road and around 40 markets in Clifton and Defence Housing Authority (DHA) were closed.
But he clarified, “Generally, Sunday is a public holiday and most markets remain closed. However, vendors usually do business on Sunday.”
Nevertheless, PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh shared pictures, saying that Jackson Electronics Market was among the bazaars shut in Karachi’s Keamari district.
The PTI’s Karachi chapter also claimed that markets in Safoora Town, North Nazimabad, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Town and Malir were shut by traders to record their protest silently.
In another post, Sheikh contended, “This strike is not just a strike, it’s a referendum! Today’s nationwide strike has set a new precedent.
“Historically, strikes in this province were enforced with sticks, threats, roadblocks, burning tyres, even bullets and arson.”
He claimed, “This may be the first strike in Pakistan’s history where workers were not on the streets — yet the public itself shut everything down. That is not a strike; that is a referendum.”
Punjab
In Punjab, the PTI said it would observe a “silent agitation” by urging people to stay home and keep bazaars and transport shut voluntarily as part of a shutter-down and wheel-jam strike to express their resentment against a “Form-47 government that stole people’s mandate”.
However, a Dawn correspondent in Lahore reported that markets exhibited the usual Sunday momentum, with routine traffic movement observed. Most markers remained closed due to Sunday and the Basant festival, which was in its last day.
The PTI’s Lahore chapter claimed on X at 11:45am that police had reached Sujawal Bridge in Sadiqabad to force people to open their shops.
PTI Punjab Chief Organiser Aliya Hamza Malik had urged people to suspend outdoor activity and stay home as a form of protest. She also called for torch-bearing rallies after Maghrib prayers at the union council level.
Party leaders in the province also criticised police raids and arrests of workers on Saturday, alleging harassment of families during search operations.
Islamabad, Rawalpindi
Meanwhile, most of the markets in the federal capital remained open on Sunday as traders did not heed the PTI’s strike call.
These included the main markets in different sectors and sub-sectors of the city.
While Sunday bazaars act as a litmus test for such calls by political parties, the H-9 weekly bazaar remained open. A Dawn correspondent reported that a large number of people were visiting the weekly bazaar.
Fawad Khan, a PTI supporter who was selling garments, said that he and other traders cannot afford to close their shops.
“We are already hand-to-mouth, and I cannot starve my family. I am a follower of Imran Khan and even voted for his candidate, but I cannot afford to close the stall,” he said.
Muhammad Faiq, a resident who had come for shopping, said that although they have sympathy for PTI, it was not possible for him to remain limited to his house on a Sunday.
“I get only one day in a week to purchase grocery and I must do it,” he said.
However, resident Muhammad Danish said that all the political parties were the same and they never cared about the masses.
“When PTI was in power, they did not care about the masses and Imran Khan has been facing charges that he sold the [state] gifts. He used to give examples of different premiers that they come to office on bicycles but he himself travelled on a helicopter to go to office,” he said.
“No one, including the establishment, cares about Pakistan; otherwise, we would not be suffering and facing such a situation,” he lamented.
PTI Islamabad President Amir Mughal had said the party would combine the protest with mourning activities.
A local district administration official confirmed that the metro bus service that runs between the twin cities was suspended. The electric bus service operated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was also suspended.
However, traffic on the capital’s roads was reported to be the same as usual.
Balochistan
A complete shutter-down and wheel-jam strike was reported in the provincial capital Quetta.
All shops, markets, shopping malls and bazaars were shut. Traffic on the roads was also thin in Quetta, with some roads in the city closed due to traffic.
Mobile internet services have been suspended again, a Dawn correspondent reported.
Workers of the PTI and the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) — which is headed by TTAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai — staged demonstrations in some areas of the city.
Arrests were also reported in the city. There were also reports about cops detaining several political workers who were forcibly closing shops and blocking roads.
In a post on X, PTI’s Balochistan chapter shared a list of 40 TTAP workers it claimed had been arrested so far.
Clashes also took place in the Brewery and Khaizi Chowk areas along the Western Bypass between police and political workers as they had blocked the road by burning tyres and putting up barricades.
Police were reported to have used tear gas to disperse the protesters, and removed the barricades and the burning tyres to open the road for traffic.
The same situation was also witnessed in the Eastern Bypass area, which was closed in the morning, but people started their businesses and opened shops in the Bosa Mandi area after 1pm.
A small demonstration also took place near Airport Road, but police dispersed the participants and cleared the route for traffic.
Reports reaching from Chaman, Qila Saifullah, Qila Abdullah, Pishin, Harnai, Duki, Ziarat, Kan Mehtarzai, Muslim Bagh, Loralai, Barkhan, Usta Muhammad, Nasirabad and other areas suggested that small protest demonstrations of PTI and other parties, including PkMAP, were held.
Protesters attempted to block inter-provincial roads, but police dispersed them, reportedly resorting to baton charges in Qila Saifullah.
In Chaman, political workers pelted stones at the police, injuring one constable who was taken to a hospital.
In an exchange on X, Balochistan government official Shahid Rind said in a reply to Achakzai that the Quetta Airport road usually displayed similar scenes as today on “a Sunday in winters”.
In his post, Achakzai had shared a picture showing a deserted road.
In a post, the TTAP said its workers had “blocked all roads” in Balochistan’s Loralai and Harnai. Tyres were also burned to block the road near Duki’s Eidgah Chowk, it said.
PTI hails public ‘response’
In a statement on X, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja asserted that a strike was a “documented Constitutional method to express irritation with the system”.
He said the public could express their “hatred towards lies and oppression from their doorsteps” in this way. “Shop closed, vehicle jammed. No tyrant can compare to 250 million. Today is the day of a strike.
“It is a day of mourning over the stolen vote and terrorism in Balochistan and Islamabad,” he added.
Recalling the Feb 8, 2024 elections, Raja termed it a “historic moment of the Pakistani nation’s democratic expression”. He highlighted that the people voted for PTI in support of its founder, Imran Khan despite “months-long oppression and snatching the electoral symbol”.
He further said, “On that dark evening, the wolves who looted the votes of those young people and of the entire nation across the country, they negated the very existence of millions of human beings.”
Meanwhile, KP CM Sohail Afridi congratulated all participating parties for what he called a “successful” shutter-down and wheel-jam strike.
In a social media post on X, he wrote: “I thank all Pakistanis for once again sending a clear message today to those who robbed them of their mandate that we stood with Imran Khan, we are standing with him today, and we will continue to stand with him.
“Across Pakistan, people participated wholeheartedly in the shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, which is both encouraging and also fearsome for our opponents,” he claimed.
“Today, Pakistanis once again rejected the imposed group and those who brought them to power,” the KP CM said.
Furthermore, he said that “each small or big event holds great importance” in the opposition’s movement for the supremacy of the Constitution and the law, and for the restoration of an independent judiciary.
“We must neither abuse nor resort to bullets. We must continue our peaceful struggle within the framework of the Constitution and the law, so that no one gets an excuse to open fire,” CM Afridi said.
He reiterated the PTI’s allegation that its supporters were fired upon during the Nov 26, 2024 protest in Islamabad.
“Yet even today, Pakistanis are fearless and are not stepping back from any sacrifice,” the chief minister said, hailing the supporters’ courage.
On the other hand, CM Maryam said in a post on X: “ZERO protest/strike/shutter down in Punjab. ZERO.”
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the public had “rejected the politics of incitement and division”, quipping that the “wheel-jam [strike] itself was jammed”.
“The public is tired of protest politics and the PTI’s call was badly dismissed. There is hustle and bustle despite a Sunday,” he said on X.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions Amir Muqam also asserted that the public rejected the TTAP’s call for a wheel-jammed and shutter-down strike.
“The people of KP have realised how long they can keep believing the false narrative that has been pushed for the last 13 years,” he said in a statement.
Muqam said the people of KP wanted progress, peace and development. He claimed this was the first time he had seen a chief minister calling for businesses to be shut down.
On Saturday, PTI leader Asad Qaiser had told Dawn the party had neither postponed nor cancelled its protest programme in the wake of the Islamabad attack. “The day will be observed as a National Day of Mourning and, at the same time, protests will be held across the country against rigging in the general election,” he said.
Qaiser said the party would hold protests and a shutter-down strike “with the masses” against the alleged electoral manipulation.
Additional input from Irfan Raza, Imtiaz Ali
About the Author
