Imran Khan's community address in DC likely to see only PTI supporters

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's community address at a stadium in downtown Washington DC would likely be attended largely by the supporters of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), sources reckon, in consideration of the bitter enmity between rival political factions back home.

Khan arrived in Washington DC on Saturday aboard a commercial Qatar Airways flight, where he was received by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pakistan ambassador to the US, Asad M Khan. Reportedly, no US official came to receive the Pakistani Prime Minister at the Dulles International Airport.

A video shared on the twitter handle of PTI shows Khan deboarding the commercial flight and later being received by Qureshi and Asad. He also took people mover for leaving the airport. The absence of a delegation from the US suggests that the Trump Administration does not care much about his maiden visit.

Ahead of Khan's visit, the World Baloch Organisation (WBO) and the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) launched an awareness campaign against the enforced disappearance in Pakistan's largest province -Balochistan. Apart from this, ten US lawmakers also wrote to Trump on July 19, urging him to raise the topic of human rights abuses in Sindh during his meeting with Khan in the US capital on July 22.

The American lawmakers highlighted that the abuses and injustices taking place at the hand of the Pakistani government prevail despite the US providing more than USD 30 billion in aid to the South Asian country.

Back home, the PTI's reported crackdown on media, and civil activists, as well as the reported rounding up of rival leaders, have gained the party much criticism from the opposition.