ISLAMABAD: In a leaked purported audio, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram has said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi should have brought along his 90 party members of the KP assembly, if he was to stage a sit-in.
In the message, he could be heard saying that if the CM had to hold a sit-in, then he would have brought his 90 members of the provincial assembly with him, as the members of the assembly of the chief minister’s province were close.
He purportedly said they (lawmakers) could have reached, when the meeting was held at KP House at night; Asad Qaiser, Junaid Akbar were also present. He (CM) should have informed at night that they would hold a sit-in, “what a joke this is, you should have informed at night”.
Hence, apparently, Waqas Akram has blamed the CM for the non-participation of the members of parliament in Thursday’s sit-in. In the audio message, it was said that Sohail Afridi, while going to Adiala, said that he had called not the workers but the members of the National and provincial assembly.
The leaked audio message is available on social media. Waqas said in the alleged audio message that the members of the assembly came from Punjab on Tuesday and then went back to their respective constituencies. He noted Sohail Afridi held a meeting at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House the night before, he should have told them in the meeting that there was a sit-in planned at Adiala.
According to the purported message, he can be heard saying that no member of the assembly has a plane to reach immediately, the members, who were close, reached; today there was a rush outside the Supreme Court, more members had reached. He said it is not the fault of the members of the national and provincial assemblies, it is the fault of those who made the plan, a person is on a 10-hour journey, “you tell him to reach immediately at night, no one has a plane, this does not happen at all”.
Later, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan came up to clarify the audio leak and told the media after the political committee meeting held in the presence of opposition leaders here that the audio leak of Waqas Akram has been misinterpreted; he did not say anything like that.
The PTI chairman said that there was a meeting of “our political committee; Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and Mahmood Achakzai also attended the meeting”.
