Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has threatened to take to the streets with two million people unless he is allowed to meet Imran Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and a former prime minister.
Afridi issued the warning while speaking to reporters outside Adiala jail on Thursday. If permission to meet Imran Khan is not granted, he said, a march on Islamabad will be held on Sept 27 with two million people.
“I have come to Adiala for the last time before Sept 27,” Afridi said. “I will return only if the government itself confirms the meeting.”
Afridi’s name was on the list of those seeking to meet Imran Khan a day earlier. But from the situation at the jail, he said, it appeared the authorities had no intention of allowing him in.
Threat of nationwide road blockades
Afridi announced nationwide road blockades from 10pm on Thursday as part of the PTI’s “D-Chowk” protest programme if the meeting was not allowed.
He told party workers to prepare to take to the streets carrying national and PTI flags. The protest, he said, would signal that the treatment of the country’s most popular leader since April 2022 is unacceptable.
According to the PTI’s media wing, protests have already been held in several cities, with party workers gathering at intersections and chanting slogans in support of Imran Khan.
Afridi said similar action would begin in other PTI areas, and that a street programme was planned in Bannu on Sunday.
‘Sept 27 will be a nightmare’
Afridi claimed more than two million people would join the Sept 27 programme.
The date would become a “nightmare” for the authorities, he said. There was great enthusiasm among the public, the PTI leader said, claiming that a large number of supporters had gathered in Khyber district on Wednesday at short notice.
Anyone carrying the Pakistani or PTI flag would be treated as a supporter of Imran Khan, Afridi said, adding that the people of Pakistan wanted solutions to their problems. Only Imran Khan, he claimed, could deliver them.
Allegation that court orders are not being implemented
Afridi’s warning came amid continuing PTI protests and demands for access to Imran Khan.
The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday directed the jail authorities to arrange meetings for Imran Khan with family members and lawyers, and a day later with party leaders.
But Afridi said such court orders had gone unimplemented for months. Speaking to reporters at night, he said orders by three judges permitted meetings with Imran Khan twice a week, and that they were not being carried out.
“We have applied to the court to have the decisions implemented, but the court is helpless. In that case we have every right to protest,” he said.
‘Government offices are non-functional’
Afridi claimed that even government ministers were acknowledging that the country and its administration had become dysfunctional.
This, he said, was proof of the government’s failure, and he called for key government offices, including the Prime Minister’s Office, to be shut down.
If these institutions were not working effectively, he argued, there was no sense in keeping them open and wasting public money.
“Even the prime minister said he would look into the meeting and let me know. If offices of such importance are non-functional, the government should shut them down, because they are wasting public money. Ordinary people pay taxes, and that money is spent on them,” he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report