Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Sohail Afridi has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Sept 27 long march to Islamabad will go ahead as planned, calling the date “firm and non-negotiable”.
Addressing PTI workers in Hangu during the party’s ongoing campaign seeking the release of Imran Khan, Afridi said that he will lead the march and would return only after achieving its objective.
“This time around, there is no turning back. We will return victorious,” he said.
Afridi also criticised the federal government over the implementation of a Supreme Court (SC) order concerning medical treatment for Imran Khan at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
He mentioned that the court had given two days for arrangements to be made but the federal government failed to act on the order.
The chief minister said that the PTI now aimed to bring four million people to Islamabad on Sept 27, doubling its earlier target of two million participants.
He alleged that the government and administration had ignored the court’s orders and questioned the selective implementation of judicial decisions.
Afridi stressed that court orders against the PTI or its workers were implemented quickly, with federal agencies and police acting within hours or minutes, while the order concerning Imran’s medical treatment was not enforced.
“If the courts can’t hold the powerful and the so-called ‘untouchable’ accountable, they should not punish the vulnerable as well and should also consider releasing weaker prisoners,” he stated.
He said that there could not be one law for the powerful and another for ordinary citizens, adding that equal application of the law was central to Imran’s political struggle.
Afridi also called on the judiciary to uphold justice, while pointing to challenges facing farmers, the movement of industrial capital abroad and economic pressures on ordinary people.
He described Khan as a symbol of national unity and said he was the only national leader capable of restoring public confidence in state institutions. “Imran Khan will return and peace will be restored,” he avowed.
He claimed that Pakistan’s public debt had reached Rs97 trillion, adding that industrialists were moving their capital abroad while ordinary people faced rising inflation and economic difficulties.
The chief minister also urged young people to join the Sept 27 march, saying around 90 percent of participants in PTI rallies and street protests were youths.
“The youth has to decide the country’s future. They must stand up for their own future,” he said.
Afridi further alleged that PTI workers, including women, continued to face repression. He claimed that PTI workers had been shot and killed in Muridke and that Imran’s sisters had been mistreated.
PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar Khan, provincial ministers Shafi Jan and Meena Khan Afridi and other party leaders also attended the event.
