Peshawar
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Sohail Afridi has said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz have blatantly violated the Supreme Court’s orders concerning the medical treatment of Imran Khan.
He said three Supreme Court judges had directed that Imran Khan be treated at Shifa International Hospital in the presence of his sister and personal physician, but the “fake government” had disregarded the court’s order. He said defiance of the order was not merely a violation of the directive issued by the three judges, but an affront to the authority and dignity of the judiciary as a whole. The Chief Minister made these remarks while addressing participants of a Street Movement at Sawari Chowk during his one-day visit to Buner in connection with preparations for the September 27 long march. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf provincial president Junaid Akbar Khan, provincial ministers Shafi Jan and Meena Khan, and other provincial and local leaders also participated in the Street Movement.
Sohail Afridi said the ruling authorities had no regard for the Constitution or the rule of law and considered themselves above the constitutional order. He said the people must stand with judges who uphold justice and respond to the aspirations of the public. “We will not accept one law for the powerful and another for the weak,” he said. Referring to the September 27 long march, the Chief Minister said 4 million people would take to the streets to present their case and would not return empty-handed this time.
“September 27 will be a revolution,” he said. He added that they would take to the streets on September 27 without fear of guns or bullets. “We have to achieve real freedom or embrace martyrdom; there is no third option,” he said. Sohail Afridi said Imran Khan remained firmly connected with the country’s youth and would emerge through the power of the people. He said that just as Imran Khan was making sacrifices, they too would not hesitate to make sacrifices for their cause.
“Nothing can force us to retreat even an inch from our objective,” he said, urging workers not to be distracted or diverted from their course. The Chief Minister said they had to stand with the leader who had rejected external subjugation by declaring “Absolutely Not.” He described Imran Khan as the only leader capable of saving the country, strengthening the economy and securing genuine national sovereignty. He said Imran Khan was a guarantor of national unity and the leader capable of restoring the dignity and respect of state institutions.
The Chief Minister maintained that Imran Khan was making sacrifices for future generations and that this imposed a responsibility on them to stand up for him. He reiterated that the people would not accept a system in which the powerful were subject to one set of laws while ordinary citizens were subject to another. The Chief Minister clarified that those in power have stole people’s mandate and the ruling elite is consuming the hard-earned resources of the Pakistani people.
As per IMF reports , the federal government is responsible for corruption amounting to Rs 5.3 trillion. The incumbent rulers are hollowing out the foundations of the country. The Chief Minister said the people of Buner have always supported Imran Khan and noted that Imran Khan has entrusted the people of Buner with the position of acting chairman of Pakistan’s largest political party.
Referring to the country’s youth, the Chief Minister said that wherever he goes, more than 90 percent of the people he encounters are young. “Our youth are not cockroaches; they are Iqbal’s Shaheens,” he said. He added that the youth are the future of the country and will be the ones to take charge of the country and make its decisions.
