ISLAMABAD - After facing failure to garner support of the Opposition parties over Raiwind March, PTI chief Imran Khan has summoned an important party meeting on Sunday to finalise future strategy of his much-hyped protest march over Panama leaks.

“Imran has called an important meeting of party leadership from all over the country at Islamabad on Sunday to discuss Raiwind March preparations,” Secretary information PTI said through his tweeter account.

It is likely that Imran Khan after consultations with the senior party leadership would announce a fresh date of the protest, a PTI insider said.

He further said that Sunday’s party meeting would be a crucial one as all the modalities of the protest including exact venue and its nature would be decided there.

According to the insider, the likely fresh date can be at the end of this month.

Chairman PTI Imran Khan in his September 6 rally in Karachi had announced to hold march towards the palatial residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in Raiwind on September 24 over the government’s reluctance to get Panama leaks probed. However,Imran Khan got a cold shoulder from the leaders of some Opposition parties. Even Imran Khan had to face resistance within his party as a group within the party said that he had taken a solo flight without consulting other Opposition parties.

An office-bearer of PTI’s Central Secretariat informed The Nation that the party’s meeting scheduled on Sunday would decide what would be the exact nature of the protest; either it would be a rally, a march or a sit-in. Similarly, what would be the exact venue of the demonstration and from where it would start. However, PTI leadership has already decided that its protest march would not be towards the residence of Sharifs in Raiwind after facing criticism from other Opposition parties that it would be inappropriate to attack anyone’s house. The sources within PTI said that a major group within the party was opposing the Raiwind March, and the party could also avail the option to postpone its protest.

However, Imran Khan on September 9 had said that his party would go ahead with the protest plan at any cost but would not march towards the residence of the PM.

The PTI chief after his announcement that his party would hold a Raiwind March over the government’s reluctance to get probed Panama leaks under the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the Opposition is facing a real challenge for the success of its protest as major Opposition parties have refused to join it.

The only hope for the PTI faded when the chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Dr Tahirul Qadri suddenly refused to join it. PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri had announced on last Saturday that his party would not join Imran Khan’s Raiwind March. Announcing the decision, he said that PAT workers would not encircle anyone’s residence as attacking houses was a tradition of the Sharif brothers. “The march and sit-in at the Raiwind residence could endanger security and peace,” he said.

The announcement of Dr Tahirul Qadri (TUQ) prompted PTI MNA Dr Shireen Mazari to respond as she tweeted: “Cannot escape this sense that TUQ is Pakistan’s Gulen in so many ways.”  She gave a veiled reference to Turkish leader Fethullah Golen who is currently living in self-imposed exile life in the US. The other parties of the joint Opposition including PPP, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have already refused to participate in PTI’s Raiwind March. They are not supporting the idea of Imran Khan to stage a demonstration or sit-in outside the residence of any opponent.

Imran Khan earlier even had shown flexibility to change the date of his protest march saying if other parties wanted to join march, he was ready to change its schedule, but he could not get support from them.