PESHAWAR, Nov 29: Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) member and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, in a grim warning, remarked that Pakistan was dangerously close to descending into utter lawlessness should the courts’ orders continue to remain unenforced.
Afridi said that the continued failure to implement judicial directives by the authorities was fuelling public resentment, adding that this resentment would plunge the country into anarchy as each citizen, totally disregarding all existing state laws, would go about seeking their own justice, leading to sheer chaos.
Speaking to reporters outside Adiala Jail after an overnight sit-in, Afridi said the PTI leadership had decided to boycott all National Assembly and Senate proceedings and would not let them proceed.
He said that if parliamentary institutions could not even safeguard the basic rights of their own fellow members, then such institutions were meaningless, News International reported.
Afridi, who along with fellow PTI members had staged a 16hr peaceful sit-in outside Adiala Jail, said that despite the Islamabad High Court allowing PTI members to meet with the party’s incarcerated founder and former PM Imran Khan, the delegation – consisting of parliamentarians and cabinet members – was denied access.
“Every constitutional and legal avenue has been exhausted,” he said. “If courts cannot ensure the implementation of their own rulings, what remains except the law of the jungle?”
Announcing another demonstration, the KPK CM said that PTI members would stage a sit-in protest outside the premises of the IHC on Tuesday, adding that lawmakers from across the country had been asked to join. The party also plans to visit Adiala Jail in solidarity with Imran Khan’s sisters.
The CM remarked that Imran Khan’s sisters were being stopped from meeting him, and were allegedly subjected to disgraceful treatment by the authorities, who he alleged were physically and mentally harassing Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, in a bid to break the former premier.
Pushing back against the argument, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar criticised Afridi and the PTI leadership for what he described as a politically driven confrontation at the expense of governance in KPK.
In a post on X, Tarar said the PTI was “fixated on securing political guidance from an inmate” convicted of corruption – a practice he said violated prison rules – while neglecting security and development needs in a province central to Pakistan’s fight against terrorism.
He also accused a female PTI leader of orchestrating an online campaign using so-called hostile accounts, which he alleged were operating from Afghanistan and being “sensationalised by Indian media”, as part of a malicious campaign to malign Pakistan’s global image, which stands tattered.
The province’s Governor Faisal Karim Kundi echoing the criticism, said that even though KPK had recently suffered three major militant attacks, both its CM and his party, were more focused on engaging in political theatrics against Islamabad, while neglecting their own province. “Politics and governance are separate things,” he said. “This is a time to establish peace and solve public problems.”
Advisor to the Prime Minister, Rana Sanaullah, mocking the protest with utter disdain remarked that the KPK CM should embark on a hunger strike outside Adiala jail until death “in Imran Khan’s love,” if he so wishes.
While agreeing that a meeting between the PTI founder and the party’s leaders should be allowed, he said there should not be any “hours-long press conferences” by the party members after meeting Khan.
“There should be no talk of arson, violence, or marching on Islamabad. No law allows anyone to run a movement from inside jail,” Sanaullah said. The PML-N leader added that the court had earlier granted the PTI permission for a meeting with Khan on the condition that they do not engage in politics.
(UNI)
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