The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s long march is set to move towards Charsadda on Friday, the sixth day since it began on Sunday, October 4, after spending Thursday night at several points in Peshawar, where mobile phone and internet signals remained down across much of the city. The convoy left Khyber district on Thursday, and the marchers camped at various spots in the city. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi arrived separately at Kabootar Chowk around midnight, addressed the gathering and left, while workers stayed on.According to the schedule issued for the caravan, it is due to reach Shabqadar around noon on Friday and Charsadda at 5pm, where participants will stay overnight.

Afridi will then address a rally at Farooq-e-Azam Chowk in Charsadda at 2pm on Saturday.Attendance from Peshawar itself was modest, the reporter said, with hardly 500 locals joining. Most of those present were the 3,000 to 4,000 workers who had travelled with the march from the southern districts. There was no major rally, partly because the venue was very cramped. The march was originally to go to Charsadda, Mardan, Malakand and Mohmand. That plan has changed, the reporter said. The convoy will now go to Charsadda and Mardan and then reach Swabi, where the party is expected to decide its next step. It is expected to reach Swabi by around October 12. 

Mobile signals have been suspended along the march’s path, first at Mattani when the convoy arrived from Kohat, then in Khyber and in Peshawar. Signals have been down in Peshawar for three days, with only the cantonment area getting coverage, leaving neither phone nor internet service elsewhere. Residents blame the march for their difficulties, and it was not clear when services would be restored, though they might improve once the convoy leaves the city.PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said in Charsadda on Thursday that the party remained ready for meaningful and positive negotiations with the federal government, without preconditions.

He opposed governor’s rule or an emergency in KP, saying neither would resolve the country’s problems, and urged decision-makers to show restraint and settle disputes through dialogue. Gohar defended Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, saying he had never made a statement in support of terrorists, and reiterated that the PTI stood with the state against terrorism. He hoped JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman would help facilitate talks, and thanked the JUI-F, Awami National Party (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami for opposing governor’s rule. The remarks came days after talks with the government collapsed at around 3am on October 4 over access to Imran Khan and the provincial government’s cooperation on counterterrorism.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi blamed Afridi for the collapse, an account the PTI rejected.The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has fixed for October 15 a petition challenging the appointment of KP CM Afridi, which seeks to declare his election unconstitutional and restore his predecessor, Ali Amin Gandapur. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, with Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, will hear the petition filed by MNA and lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat. The court took it up on September 14 and issued notices to Afridi, the KP government and Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan. 

Marwat argues that Gandapur did not resign voluntarily but did so on the instructions of PTI founder Imran Khan, whom he describes as convicted and constitutionally disqualified. A resignation made under external pressure, he says, cannot be legally valid. According to the petition, Gandapur submitted resignation letters on October 8 and 11, 2025, and Marwat wants them declared lacking in free will. He also questions whether the governor formally accepted the resignation. 

Citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Nawaz Sharif party presidency case, Marwat contends that a disqualified person cannot control the state through a proxy. He says allowing someone disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 to influence the provincial executive would undermine constitutional governance. These are the petitioner’s arguments and have not been adjudicated.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)