Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday said he supports the people of Sindh on the matter of “dividing” the province and is ready to sacrifice his life to ensure the integrity of the province.
Addressing a lawyers’ convention at the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), he said he had seen concern among the people of Sindh over the issue of new provinces during his mobilization campaign for the Sept. 27 long march. “I announce that I stand with the people of Sindh against this division. If blood has to be shed for this cause, my blood will be the first to be shed,” he claimed.
Thanking the people of Sindh for welcoming him during his visit, he lamented that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had welcomed them through a social media post but his party’s provincial government had attempted to hamper his travel. “I apologize to the people of Sindh and Karachi. Roads were closed because of me and people faced difficulties. There are hardly proper roads in Sindh, and even those that exist were closed,” he said.
He also thanked incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan for making a “middle class” person like himself a leader. He alleged the federal government was preparing another constitutional amendment to “facilitate themselves,” and urged lawyers to join the PTI in protest on Sept. 27. He called on them to shut down the country’s economic hub—Karachi—for a week.
Afridi also claimed that Imran Khan could come out of prison in a single day if he agreed to a deal, but the PTI founder was refusing to do so.