Imran wants new protest committee, and I’ll be part of it: Marwat

ISLAMABAD: A senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sher Afzal Marwat Wednesday said he had informed the party founder chairman Imran Khan that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s protest strategy was not right.

“I told Imran Khan that protests were not up to the mark and Ali Amin Gandapur did not stage an effective protest,” he said while talking to journalists outside the Adiala jail, where he met his jailed leader Imran Khan.

He said that the PTI founder had taken some decisions, which the party’s Secretary General Salman Akram Raja would explain. He pointed out that the party founder had ordered to form a new protest committee and he (Marwat) would be a part of it.

“Winter is around the corner. We will make such a strategy of protest that if a leader is arrested, the other one will lead,” he added. Marwat said he wanted to know what PTI founder’s position was on the JUIF leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman. One colleague informed Imran Khan that military courts were not formed because of the Maulana. The PTI founder said even if military courts were formed, it did not matter to him.

Separately, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and senior PTI leader Omar Ayub said the party’s founder chairman would be released soon. Speaking to the media after his appearance in the Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court, he said Bushra Bibi was granted bail on merit and now Imran would also be released soon.

He contended that the PTI founder was not being given good food and it had caused vomiting. He urged National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and NA Special Committee Chairman Khursheed Shah to protect lawmakers. He added many women were arrested, whereas Chaudhry Imtiaz’s daughter was dragged away.

He regretted that while the smell of one stinking amendment had not gone another one was being brought about, which was condemnable. Meanwhile, in a statement issued here, Omar Ayub expressed grave concern over law & order situation and insecurity in Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack on dam construction site in Panjgur, Balochistan. “The law and order situation across Pakistan has reached an alarming state, and we are witnessing a worrying rise in violence, insecurity and criminal activity in these regions,” he added.

Omar Ayub said the law enforcement agencies, which should be focusing on ensuring peace and order, have been directed to target opposition members in an attempt to silence dissent. He called on the government to immediately shift its priorities, reallocate resources towards protecting the public and allow law-enforcement agencies to fulfil their primary responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of Pakistan’s citizens.