Gandapur vows to hold next rallies in Mianwali, Rawalpindi

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday announced to hold the next public rallies in Mianwali and Rawalpindi districts of the Punjab province.

“We will hold a public meeting in Mianwali district on next Sunday, to be followed by another one in Rawalpindi. We will let them know what a public meeting is,” said the chief minister, who is also the provincial president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in a video message.

The PTI had arranged a public meeting in Lahore on Saturday but that was wrapped up abruptly at the expiry of the deadline which had been allegedly agreed with the Punjab government, headed by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

The Punjab government later accused the PTI leaders of violating the set rules and reneging on the promise that they would apologize for the inappropriate language used by the party leaders in the public meeting arranged earlier in Islamabad.

The chief minister said he was grateful to the people of Lahore for turning up at the PTI public meeting the previous day by braving all the odds. He was critical of the Lahore admin for setting the timeline and finishing the public meeting by that time.

Gandapur was irked by the calls for tendering an apology. “Who will apologize for the force which was used against our party workers during peaceful protests in the past?”, he said, further asking the Punjab police chief who would apologise for the killing of Zile Shah, a PTI worker who had lost his life in Punjab after the PTI federal government was sent packing. The chief minister said he would never offer any apology as he had not done anything wrong.

“Do whatever you can, but I will never apologise to you,” he dared the Punjab government.

Gandapur said PTI founder Imran Khan would be released from jail and installed as prime minister again. “We will turn Pakistan into a state which was envisioned by Allama Muhammad Iqbal,” he added.