The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf would give a date for a protest this month, September, party lawmaker Sher Afzal Marwat said on Thursday as it plans to intensify its anti-government campaign.

“A decision has been taken to protest. There will be an announcement in the fourth week of September,” he said while appearing on News Insight with Amir Zia aired on Aaj News.

Imran Khan’s party has refused to accept the ruling coalition, claiming that it stole the PTI’s mandate in the February elections.

The PTI, along with five other parties, made an opposition alliance but it has not staged a big power show. The alliance has had meetings with political parties, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Isam-Fazl.

When asked about the need for protest, Marwat said: “I think Pakistan desperately needs a protest as the economy is not stabilising for the past 75 years and terrorism is on the rise for the past 25 years. There is no solution after so many operations.”

He added that if PTI protested, it would be for the supremacy of law, end to unrest, “real freedom”, freedom of judiciary, Khan’s release and “recovery” of mandate. The PTI lawmaker admitted that the PTI has been late in such protests, saying that the party founder’s trial in court and different cases affected their campaign.

He was of the view that factions within the PTI could not be formed as no one or group could afford to conflict with Khan. According to the PTI chairman, there were fewer incidents as compared to the past where party minutes of the core committee were leaked to the media in the middle of the meeting.

Marwat stated that there has been a suggestion to form a reconciliation committee under former president Arif Alvi to resolve disagreements.

The MNA was hopeful that the people would turn up for the protest in large numbers amid rising inflation and “pressure from the state.” He said: “We should endeavour. If 300,000 to 400,000 people in Bangladesh can take to the streets against injustice, why not in Pakistan.”

He admitted that the PTI made mistakes in the past and it would learn from them. Marwat called for dialogue to resolve issues.

The PTI leader clarified that his party and former prime minister Khan had borne the brunt of many PTI followers, including those overseas, supporting unethical and below-the-belt criticism of the army on social media by court-martialed officers.

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He claimed that the iddat case was a reaction to this. “Maybe or maybe not many people became part of this propaganda and linked it to the PTI,” he said and added that a similar situation occurred when a statement linked to the 1971 war was shared. “So overseas Pakistanis should not be part of such propaganda.”

He admitted that the opposition’s anti-government campaign was not strong, but hoped that the “course of many matters would be decided until September end.”

Marwat stressed the need for talks to resolve issues or else the democracy in the country would not thrive.