of the slain 134 schoolchildren and 12 teachers and other employees, declare a public holiday and arrange a meeting of the parents with Imran Khan. Some of parents poured their heart out as they narrated their woes.
Muhammad Nawaz annoyed Chief Minister Pervez Khattak when he told Imran Khan that he would like him to make whatever commitment he wanted to make with the affected families as he didn’t trust the chief minister. “I was pushed by Pervez Khattak later. Former provincial minister Shaukat Yousafzai also made inappropriate comments and I and several other parents left the meeting and protested outside the Chief Minister’s House,” he recalled.
He said certain PTI leaders were wrong in alleging that opposition political activists were among the parents who staged protest on the occasion of Imran’s visit to the Army Public School. “Only parents of the martyred students and the “ghazis” who survived staged the protest. The protest wasn’t planned but was spontaneous,” he insisted.
He maintained that the “Shuhada and Ghazi Forum” set up by the parents in memory of their martyred children and also for the survivors has no political agenda and was simply a forum to keep alive the sacrifices rendered by the families. “We are seeking justice for our children. We want to know the progress being made in investigating the school attack and punishing those behind it,” he stressed.
However, Muhammad Nawaz who is a committed worker of the PML-N now wants to put every controversy behind him and focus on the treatment of his son Ahmad Nawaz, who is a student of class nine. “Ahmad Nawaz was hit by a bullet in the left arm and he lost much blood before he could be shifted to the hospital. He was lucky to survive as he managed to run to the dressing room behind the stage in the school auditorium when the terrorists were busy in their killing spree,” he said.
According to Muhammad Nawaz, the medical board headed by Prof Dr Riaz Anwar Khan, head of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Dean of the Post-Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI), had recommended seeking second opinion about Ahmad Nawaz’s treatment.
He said the LRH chief executive in his accompanying note referred to Dr Riaz Anwar’s comment that the patient would benefit from second opinion and management abroad. “Dr Riaz Anwar told us it will take 18 months for Ahmad Nawaz to get free from pain when his nerves have healed. How can we wait so long for my son to be treated?” he asked.