Shahid Khaqan couldn’t attend his party’s Karachi event due to Islamabad situation: Miftah Ismail

The highly disturbed law and order situation in Islamabad due to the government’s crackdown on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s agitating workers didn’t allow former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to reach the federal capital’s airport to catch a flight to reach Karachi to attend an event and a press conference of his newly formed Awam Pakistan Party (APP).

APP General-Secretary Miftah Ismail disclosed this on Saturday while speaking at a press conference here at a hotel on Saturday. As per the original plan, the former PM had to speak at the press conference along with Ismail. Abbasi, apart from speaking at the press conference, had to attend an event of his party in Karachi featuring an interaction with eminent people from different walks of life, including former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair.

Ismail, who earlier also served as federal finance minister, told media persons that his party had cancelled its programmes in Lahore also due to the volatile law and order situation. He appealed to the parties to the lingering dispute in the federal capital to show flexibility in their stance. The former federal finance minister appealed to all the concerned political parties to assemble at one table to resolve crucial national issues.

He conceded that the PTI had the right to peacefully register its protest. He said the PTI, however, should refrain from staging protests at sensitive spots in the federal capital that could endanger the conduct of the SCO Summit.

The AAP leader said that Pakistan’s interests would be harmed if the SCO Summit was not held in the country. He appealed to both the government and the PTI to leave aside their egos and take a step backwards to retreat from their respective positions.

Ismail asked the government to defer its move to adopt the proposed constitutional amendment package. He proposed that the government should allow the PTI to hold its public meeting at the Parade Ground in Islamabad. He said that his party wasn’t in favour of the formation of any federal constitutional court in the country.

He asked PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari why he remembered the formation of a new constitutional court in the country all of a sudden just a few days before the retirement of the incumbent chief justice of Pakistan. “They didn’t remember this constitutional court when they remained in power continuously for many years,” he said.

He lamented that cellular phone services in Islamabad had been suspended for the past two days due to the disturbed law and order situation. He claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif didn’t have any popular mandate to rule the country.