Caravan accelerates speed

The ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's 'homecoming' motorcade on Thursday surprisingly accelerated its speed to reach the next destination, Jhelum, disappointing party workers in the Rawalpindi outskirts who were left without hearing from their leader.
The caravan led by the former premier left the camp office of Punjab House in Rawalpindi at 12:35pm following overnight stay and reached Jhelum at 5:15pm, covering 107 kilometers in around five hours against 16 kilometers it had covered from Punjab House Islamabad to Committee Chowk Rawalpindi in 12 hours on Wednesday.
The PML-N insiders cited security reasons plus meeting the required target to reach Jhelum behind the change in mood of the speedy travel of the caravan, but situation on the ground did not match the claims, as no impressive crowd was witnessed at reception camps set up by the local leadership along the road leading to Jhelum.
The second day of Nawaz Sharif's rally attracted a low number of people as compared to the first day of his journey which gradually increased when the rally reached Committee Chowk in Rawalpindi on Wednesday. The party workers were chanting slogans in favour of Nawaz Sharif and also showering flowers on his car, as the route of the motorcade was decorated with party flags and posters.
The former premier only for once and briefly spoke to his supporters from inside his bulletproof BMW SUV in Sohawa en route to Jhelum. He told the party workers that he was fighting their case and not against his own disqualification.
"It [disqualification] is disrespect of the people's vote...it's the disrespect of the voters of an elected prime minister and it's the insult of the mandate of the 20 million people...we've to take an extreme step," Nawaz said, adding, "We have to change this "game" once and for all."
Earlier, Nawaz Sharif skipped a scheduled address to the party workers at Katchery Chowk, Rawalpindi, disappointing the local workers who had set up a camp for his expected speech. A rally of PML-N workers from NA-56 led by a local party leader Chaudhry Afzal joined Nawaz Sharif's motorcade at Kutchery Chowk before proceeding to Rawat.
"We have made all the preparations for his speech and the workers were eagerly awaiting to hear from their leader, but we don't know why there was a change in the schedule," said Adeel, a local party worker. Before resuming his journey, the former prime minister also chaired a meeting at camp office of Punjab House, Rawalpindi which was attended by party leaders including Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Railway Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique, Mushahidullah Khan, Abid Sher Ali, Prime Minister of AJK Raja Farooq Haider, Senator Pervez Rashid, Senator Asif Kirmani and others.
Sources said the interior minister briefed the former premier on the security arrangement to be in placed for his motorcade. They said that the meeting also discussed the strategy for the second day's journey via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road. Meanwhile, life in Rawalpindi came to normalcy as markets along the main Murree Road remained open. However, security was put on high alert especially on the route leading to Jhelum and generally in Rawalpindi city.