LONDON: The activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came face to face in London on Wednesday as PML-N leaders held a meeting in the UK capital.
PML-N had announced that Shehbaz Sharif-led delegation of federal ministers would call on former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Hussain Nawaz’s Stanhope House office.
The PTI quickly planned a protest outside the venue and the PML-N instructed its London-based workers to gather for a counter-protest Wednesday afternoon.
Media reports said that activists from both parties turned up at Stanhope House to face each other. They chanted slogans as a sizeable number of police persons stood between them to ward off a clash.
Videos posted to Twitter showed a group of PTI protesters with their party flags standing on one side of the street as they faced another group of PML-N protesters on the other side. Policemen separated them.
PML-N protesters carried placards and banners to welcome Shehbaz Sharif to London.
Meanwhile, PML-N leadership held meetings miles away in the countryside.
In anticipation of the PTI protest the actual venue of the meeting was kept secret and as reporters waited at Stanhope House Nawaz Sharif welcomed his brother and other party members somewhere else.
The meeting was held in the countryside, the reports said.
Earlier, PTI’s London chapter announced a protest outside Stanhope House where the meeting between the PML-N leaders was to take place.
A Twitter post shared by Anila Butt, a PTI London leader, said that the protest was to be held at 4 pm local time.
