Gandapur warns federal, Punjab govts to ‘mend ways’

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Wednesday termed the first information reports registered against him fake and warned the federal and Punjab governments to mend their ways or it would become difficult for them to run the government.

His statement came after his warrants for arrest were issued by Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Malik Ijaz Asif in connection with the May 9 violence last year where military installations were attacked by mobs. The court had issued non-bailable warrants for the KP chief minister and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders. Gandapur was ordered to appear before the court on April 2.

In a statement issued here, the chief minister reminded that FIRs had been registered against Pakistan Muslim League supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and President Asif Ali Zardari in Dera Ismail Khan. “Stop threatening me lest we send police to your homes,” he said, asking the federal and Punjab governments to change their attitude. He warned it would be difficult for them to run the government if they did not quit such tactics.

The chief minister alleged that the federal and Punjab governments wanted to force the KP government to indulge in confrontation. “But we are exercising restraint,” he went on to add. Gandapur said the FIRs registered against him were falsified. He dared the government headed by the PMLN to arrest him. He challenged them to come to arrest him to test their muscles.

The chief minister said the people of KP should not be mistaken as weak. “It is not our culture to talk ill of women,” he said while advising Maryam Nawaz to stop provocative acts. Our D I Khan correspondent adds: The KP chief minister asked the people to hit any official with a brick if he demanded a bribe from them.

Addressing the PTI workers at Syed Alyan village in his native district, he said the one who paid a bribe and the one who took it had been cursed and would go to hell. Gandapur asked the people not to complain to him about bribery demands by any government official and instead hit him with a brick. “Hit him with a brick and tell his son you have saved his father from being consigned to hell,” said Gandapur telling the public to do so.

He advised people neither to become sinners themselves nor make government officials so. “The public should show dignity and punish the bribery taker themselves,” he added.

Later, during a visit to the Dera Ismail Khan Campus of the government-run Zamung Kor, a facility for poor children, Gandapur said looking after the children living here was the responsibility of the KP government.

“We are responsible for meeting their food, educational and other needs. We will do that as far as possible,” he added after being welcomed by the children housed there.

The chief minister arranged an Iftar dinner for the children and distributed gifts and cash prizes among them.