Police blockades, road closures: TTAP manages to hold final round of grand moot

ISLAMABAD: The leaders of Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP) – the grand opposition alliance – on Thursday successfully managed to hold its second and final day of the grand conference, defying heavy police blockades and road closures.

The leaders of the opposition alliance, prominently the opposition leader in National Assembly, the opposition leader in Senate Shibli Faraz, PTI secretary-general Salman Akram Raja, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, ex-prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, prominent lawyers, and scores of other leaders, entered Islamabad’s Legend Hotel by scaling its heavily-guarded walls.

The hotel administration and the police kept trying to bar the participants of the moot, but they failed to stop the heavily charged leaders – as majority of them are in their early seventies – from making it to the conference venue.

Opposition alliance vows to resist ‘unconstitutional forces’ at Islamabad conference

Shortly after managing their entry inside the hotel lobby, the TTAP leaders immediately started their fiery speeches against the ruling coalition, declaring it “illegitimate, and a mandate thief regime installed on the masses through their handlers.”

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reached the venue, only to find a heavy presence of Frontier Constabulary (FC) and police personnel led by Station House Officer (SHO) of Secretariat Police Station Ashfaq Warriach, stationed outside the hotel.

Speaking on the occasion, the opposition leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub said that those who advised Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister, and Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, to sabotage the conference from taking place should be given the “Duffer of the Year Award.”

He also expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the country, stating, “the country is not progressing and cannot progress unless and until the mandate thief regime is gotten rid of.”

Ayub further criticised the government, describing it as an illegitimate Forms 47 regime, imposed on masses through their handlers from their military establishment, adding this illegitimate regime has no moral ground to rule the country.

He also lambasted the federal and provincial governments of Punjab for misusing the hard-earned money of taxpayers through publishing “misleading” advertisements in newspapers.

Ayub vowed to hold a mammoth public rally in Balochistan despite opposition from the provincial government.

He also said that the issue of missing persons, which the party had already taken up before the Chief justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi during a recent meeting with him, would be raised vigorously at every forum.

Furthermore, he demanded the federal government to fulfill its obligations to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or else the PTI would be left with no option but to take to the streets again.

He stressed the need for upholding the constitution and the rule of law, stating, “we are here to strengthen the state and defend the constitution, particularly Article 7, which clearly defines the state.” In a joint declaration at the end of the moot, the opposition alliance declared that the solution to the myriad of issues confronting the country lies in upholding the constitution and the rule of law.

It said that the rigged elections of 2024 are the main reasons for the political and economic crisis in the country, adding the current parliament has no moral and constitutional ground to continue any further.

It also demanded abolishing all the legislations which are contrary to the constitution, particularly the controversial 26th constitutional amendment and draconian PECA Act without any further delay, through which the fascist regime has eroded the very foundations of the country.

It also demanded immediate release of all political prisoners who have been languishing in jails just because of their political ideology and demanding the rule of law in the country.

It demanded that free, fair, and transparent elections must be held in the country to steer the country out of the prevalent crisis confronting the country, besides paving the way for a “national dialogue” to find a lasting solution to the issues faced by masses.

It also vowed that the opposition alliance will continue its fight against the “illegal, unconstitutional, and mandate theft regime,” which has been imposed on masses through a stolen mandate by the powerful “military establishment.”

Meanwhile, the Islamabad Police said that the organisers of the conference forced their entry into the hotel after the police did not permit them to hold the moot.

The ICT Police said that the statement of the hotel manager has been recorded, who claimed that the participants of the moot forcibly entered the hotel premises despite the fact that the booking for the moot had already been canceled.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025