In what can best be described as an accidental spill, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir admitted that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz was behind the anti-Imran Khan banners that greeted the PTI’s long march in Gujranwala on Tuesday.

He made the remarks on Hamid Mir’s TV show Capital Talk. Shoaib Shaheen, the president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association was also present at the show.

The PML-N leader was speaking about how his party still did not have a level playing field in Punjab. While elaborating his claim that Punjab Police was facilitating PTI’s long march to Islamabad, Dastgir quietly let it slip that the police had started taking down the anti-Imran banners “as soon as we started putting them up.”

Host Hamid Mir was quick to pounce with a cackle, “So you were putting them up?”

As PTI’s ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’ entered Gujranwala on Tuesday, it was met with banners hurled throughout along the route and attributed to ‘citizens of Gujranwala’.

The banners said, “Wristwatch thief, Toshakhana thief, Imran Khan is rejected!” and “Foul language against national institutions is rejected!”

One variant said, “Gujranwala will never forgive those who split up Gujranwala!” This is presumably in response to the PTI-led Punjab government’s proposal of turning Wazirabad tehsil of Gujranwala into a new district. Pundits had speculated that the step was aimed at denting the influence of PML-N in a division that has traditionally been its stronghold.

PTI’s long march also came under attack in the same city in 2014, when the procession was pelted with stones, and the party workers also exchanged intense sloganeering with PML-N workers. PTI leaders had to take cover as they passed through PML-N strongholds. This time, however, the anti-march sentiment seems to be limited to banners only.

The ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’ is set to resume the sixth day of its slow progress to the capital, hoping to force early elections in the country.