ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran has expressed his displeasure with party’s secretary information Fawad Chaudhry for bringing a low number of people to the Jehlum rally which he addressed on Wednesday.

The PTI chief had to face embarrassment when he had to address a thin rally in Jehlum — the home constituency of Chaudhry — from where he is contesting election separately on NA-67 and PP-27 seats.

The footage of TV channels clearly showed the rows of seats were empty while a low number of people were present only near the stage set up at a stadium in district Jehlum.

As some of the photographs of the rally went viral through social media, the PTI chief came down hard on Chaudhry for his failure to assemble a large crowd, party sources confirmed. The sources said that Chaudhry had described the internal rifts within the local chapter of the party and the scorching heat as one the major reasons for the thin crowd.

Khan also had to face embracement when he on Wednesday night had to address another thinly-gathered crowd in Lahore’s Shahdara area.

PTI’s Central Media Department head Iftikhar Durrani said that the Jehlum rally was not a mega show and rejected the notion that Khan was unhappy with the party spokesperson. He said that there might be the low number of people and added that the sizzling heat of could be one of the reasons for the thin presence of the people. “We have held 35 rallies in the last seven days and if there were the low number of people in one rally, then the issue should not be blown out of proportion,” he said.