ISLAMABAD   -   The federal capital’s D-Chowk is going to become the political battlefield in the last week of March as both ruling PTI and opposition alliance on Tuesday remained adamant to their earlier announcements of holding separate public gatherings in front of the Parliament House on the eve of crucial voting in the National Assembly on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Some key government ministers and close aides of the premier reiterated the ruling party’s resolve to gather one million people in front of the Parliament House to stop those lawmakers and defectors who wanted to vote against PM Khan.

At the same time, the opposition leadership said that they would not bow down to the threats of the government and would pay it back in the same coin. They stressed that their protest marchers would reach Islamabad on March 24 and stay there till the voting on the no-confidence motion to provide security to the lawmakers who wanted to participate in the voting process.

Many political analysts predict that there can be a possible showdown between the supporters of the ruling party and the opposition parties if none of the sides budges from their positions. They warn that there can be chaos and anarchy in the country when the workers and supporters of two opposite sides gather in Islamabad simultaneously.

PML-Q, an ally of the PTI government, leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in a statement urged both sides to show restraint and cancel their political rallies

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill in a statement said that activists of youth wing of PTI were ready to defeat the new plan of President PDM, an alliance of opposition parties, Maulana Fazlur Rehman to occupy the D-Chowk, through long march, to sabotage the PTI’s March 27 rally. “The youth wing will start its work at D-Chowk from March 24 by erecting tents there to make preparations for the rally,” he said.

Speaking at the PTI Overseas Convention here, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry again reiterated his earlier remarks and said that the ruling party would see who was courageous enough to wade through a gathering of one million people to vote against PM Khan and then again pass through the same gathering.

“We will test the courage (of those lawmakers),” he said, adding that he hoped that rising political temperatures would melt down soon and the situation would not go to the extent of voting on the no-confidence resolution. He also challenged all the three opposition parties — the PML-N, the PPP and the JUI-F, to hold a mammoth rally in Islamabad the way the PTI would be doing.

Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tried to downplay the situation in his press talk and said that PTI would hold its political gathering on March 27 in the capital and then its workers would disperse without holding any sit-in there.

On the other hand, the opposition parties also geared up to mobilize their workers as PDM president Fazlur Rehman has suggested to the PML-N to start the protest march from Lahore to reach Islamabad via GT Road and it should be led by its party leaders Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehbaz.