Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has alleged that his convoy was obstructed during his recent visit to Sindh, claiming that containers and trenches were placed along his route despite a warm reception by supporters.
\nSpeaking at the Sindh High Court Bar in Karachi on Monday, the chief minister said he had witnessed \u201ccourage and enthusiasm\u201d among the people of Sindh during his five-day visit from Ghotki to Karachi.
\nMr Afridi criticised the provincial authorities over the alleged restrictions, saying that on the one hand PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had welcomed him through a social media post while, on the other, obstacles had been placed in his way.
\nHe demanded that Mr Bhutto-Zardari either accept responsibility for the measures or identify those responsible for placing the containers and digging trenches along his route.
\nThe chief minister also alleged that PTI workers in Sindh had been subjected to harassment and that women party workers had also faced mistreatment. He claimed that the party had been deprived of 20 provincial and 40 National Assembly seats in the Karachi region.
\nMr Afridi said he would support the people of Sindh in their struggle for their rights and criticised proposals relating to the division of provinces.
\nHe also spoke about Pakistan\u2019s relations with Afghanistan and Iran, arguing that geographical, religious and cultural ties with neighbouring countries should be maintained. He criticised the federal government\u2019s policies towards Afghanistan and questioned the approach towards relations with neighbouring states.
\nThe chief minister criticised what he called the domination of two political families over the country, alleging that political power had been transferred from one generation to another.
\nHe also criticised successive constitutional amendments, saying that, in his view, the 18th and 25th amendments were primarily in the public interest while other amendments had been introduced to provide protection to political leaders and their actions.
\nMr Afridi raised the issue of Imran Khan\u2019s detention and alleged non-compliance with court orders concerning the PTI founder.
\nHe claimed that three Islamabad High Court judges had directed that he be allowed to meet Mr Khan, but the order was not implemented by the Adiala jail authorities. He further alleged that three Supreme Court judges had ordered medical treatment for Mr Khan at Shifa International Hospital, but that order was also not implemented.
\nAccording to Mr Afridi, contempt petitions had been filed over the alleged non-compliance with the court orders but had not produced the desired results.
\nAddressing lawyers, he questioned whether the failure to implement judicial orders should be regarded as a failure of PTI or of the justice system.
\nThe chief minister said political change could not be achieved if people continued to tolerate violations of their rights.
\nHe claimed that Imran Khan could secure his release through a political deal but had chosen to remain firm on his political principles.
\nMr Afridi announced that PTI supporters would hold a public mobilisation on Sept 27, saying a large number of people would come out to demand their rights.
\nHe said the response to his visit had exceeded his expectations and claimed that the reception in Sindh demonstrated growing support for PTI\u2019s political narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has alleged that his convoy was obstructed during his recent visit to Sindh, claiming that containers and trenches were placed along his route despite a warm reception by supporters. Speaking at the Sindh High Court Bar in Karachi on Monday, the chief minister said he had witnessed \u201ccourage and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":102711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102722,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102702\/revisions\/102722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}