ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Thursday announced that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will hold a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on April 9 to protest the toppling of democratically elected government of Imran Khan under a “foreign plot” on this day in 2022.
Speaking at a news conference here, he said that if they are denied an NOC, they will still hold the public meeting, where-ever they would be stopped. “Those who installed a fake regime and those who are in power consider people sheep and goats,” he charged.
In response to a question about the sidelining of Mahmood Khan Achakzai-led opposition alliance on the decision of public meeting, he explained that it was a PTI public meeting to protest the removal of their government, and the opposition alliance elders will be invited and will attend it.
He said that his party’s political committee had discussed a host of issues in a meeting a day earlier. He noted that as the chief minister, he had put before the federal government the case of his province and the Pakistani nation.
Sohail Afridi regretted that his province’s share under the NFC was being denied and the Centre owed well over Rs1,300 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He pointed out that the merged tribal districts’ population of over six million was not getting its due share under the NFC, which has been distributed unconstitutionally since 2018.
He took the stand that despite the devastating floods of last year, the federal government did not provide a single rupee and cuts were also being made to the provincial budget.
Sohail Afridi said that petrol prices are continuously increasing and it is his responsibility to raise his voice for the common man, while he also disagreed with the smart lockdown policy.
Sohail Afridi said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is giving money to those who were displaced by the operation. “We have spent Rs15 billion on these people so far.”
Separately, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram charged that the government’s wrong economic policies, incompetence and blind dependence on the IMF are pushing the country into a spiral of severe inflation. Instead of providing any clear economic roadmap, he regretted, the government has only opted for increasing taxes and prices, and instead of providing relief to the people, the burden is being continuously shifted to the common man.
The party spokesperson outright rejected the recent increase in LPG gas prices and the expected further increase in the prices of petroleum products, calling it an anti-people and cruel move.
Meanwhile, Advocate Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, counsel for Imran Khan, has alleged that prison authorities are preventing him from obtaining necessary signatures on legal documents required to file petitions in higher courts.
Speaking to the media near the Adiala jail on Thursday, Chaudhry stated that he had visited the facility for the second time to secure signatures on vakalatnama and power of attorney documents. He alleged that there appears to be a deliberate attempt to delay and render ineffective the petitions of former prime minister.
