Imran Khan aide Gandapur does a hat-trick, flees protest site with Bushra Bibi

Imran Khan’s close aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, has done it again. Gandapur, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, along with Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, were leading the protests in Islamabad, until they fled the scene. In some videos, protesters are seen trying to stop Gandapur, and urging him to stay back and protest.

Thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters had gathered in Islamabad, demanding Khan’s release. After the Pakistan government launched a brutal midnight crackdown, both Gandapur and Bibi fled Islamabad’s Blue Area and remained incommunicado for hours.

While Gandapur was making a hasty retreat in the dark, some of the deserted PTI supporters sat on the road cursing him, others screamed, “humney Ali Amin [Gandapur] ko nahi jaane dena”, meaning, “we must not let Ali Amin go”.

It wasn’t until Wednesday morning that Gandapur, Bibi, and other PTI leaders resurfaced in Mansehra, in party stronghold Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the only province that Khan’s party governs.

GANDAPUR SCORES HAT-TRICK IN FLEEING PROTEST SITE

This wasn’t the first time the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM had abandoned PTI supporters.

“So, they have reached back. What about the thousands of people they took with them? Gandapur has completed his hattrick now,” Dewan Sachal, a former Member of Sindh Assembly wrote on X.

The last time Gandapur pulled an escape act wasn’t too long ago.

In October, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM vanished from a PTI protest site in Islamabad.

As the party scrambled to form a committee and draft a resolution about his mysterious ‘disappearance’, Gandapur showed up the next day in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, greeted with hugs and handshakes.

The ‘disappearance’, that saw the PTI members blaming the Muslim League Nawaz-led Federal government on the effectiveness of the latter’s Safe City Project, lasted for 48 hours.

“This is the second time in recent months that CM Gandapur has ‘gone missing’ after making his way to Islamabad,” reported Pakistani daily Dawn.

Before the “October escape”, Gandapur had pulled a similar stunt just a month earlier.

In September, he went off the grid for hours after several PTI legislators were picked up from Islamabad’s National Assembly premises following a heated public rally in Sangjani on the capital’s outskirts.

‘FINAL CALL’ FOR IMRAN KHAN’S RELEASE ENDS IN WHIMPER

Ali Amin Gandapur of the PTI, has been at the fore of the protests where the PTI has given a “Final Call”, for the release of their beloved and revered ‘Qaidi Number 804’, Imran Khan.

On Tuesday, a convoy of thousands led by Ali Amin Gandapur and Bushra Bibi reached Islamabad’s D-Chowk, a central public square, as part of a protest demanding the release of Imran Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023. Thousands, particularly from Khan’s stronghold in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, marched towards the capital despite a government-imposed ban on public gatherings and a lockdown of the city’s heavily fortified Red Zone.

The PTI supporters jumped off barricades to reach Islamabad. As they clashed with security forces, violence escalated. Tear gas and rubber bullets were used to disperse the crowd. Around 500 PTI supporters were picked up and six lost their lives.

It was then, as the situation worsened, Ali Amin Gandapur and Bushra Bibi fled the protest site in two separate vehicles. The ‘Final Call’ for Imran Khan’s release thus ended in a whimper as the Pakistani administration managed to scare off Gandapur, and the protesters, left leaderless, fled the scene.