Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Sunday claimed denying him and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, as well as the family of Imran Khan, access to the incarcerated former prime minister is an attempt to push the party toward confrontation.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar after a parliamentary party meeting, he vowed that the PTI would not “go down this path” and would continue seeking Khan’s rights through peaceful means.
Lamenting that Khan had not been allowed to meet anyone since Nov. 4, he expressed concern over “troubling” reports regarding the PTI founder’s health. “We went to Adiala, but were not allowed to meet even for two minutes. We even approached the high court, but the meeting could not take place,” he said, vowing that on Tuesday the party would initially stage a protest outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) before proceeding to Adiala Jail to support Khan’s sisters. These protests, he said, would continue weekly until a meeting was granted.
Afridi also criticized the inclusion of his name on the “stop list,” effectively barring him from traveling overseas. He claimed this was “discriminatory” treatment against the chief minister of a province.
According to the chief minister, the parliamentary party meeting had decided to participate in the upcoming National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting to “fight for the rights” of the province and the erstwhile tribal areas. He maintained KP has not received its due share under the NFC Award since 2018, claiming the province was owed Rs. 1,350 billion from the federal government. The PTI was itself in power from August 2018 through April 2022.
“Everyone must work together to fight for the province,” he said, urging all political forces in the province to unite for this cause.