Sharjeel chides PTI for holding protest during Belarusian president’s visit

KARACHI: Sindh Senior Minister for Transport and Information Sharjeel Inam Memon has stated that there is an appropriate time for holding protests, and calling for demonstrations on sensitive occasions is not a good tradition.

He made this statement while speaking to the media outside an accountability court on Wednesday.

He said the police was effectively held hostage by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and Bushra Bibi during the recent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s protest in the federal capital.

He lamented that officials of police, Rangers, and FC were martyred during the violent protest and alleged that the PTI wanted casualties that it could exploit for political purposes.

Memon was of the view that the federal interior minister made a good strategy and prevented the PTI’s objectives from being realised.

The information minister remarked that Bushra Bibi was more extreme than her spouse Imran Khan in her actions because she did everything possible to incite violence.

He said Bushra Bibi and KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur stood on the container declaring they would take Imran Khan back with them. However, when the police took action, both Gandapur and Bushra Bibi were the first to flee.

He urged the public not to listen to those who incited violence for political gains, emphasising that the PTI attempted to indoctrinate terrorism in innocent people.

He compared the protest call to the events of May 9 and said such actions should serve as a wake-up call for everyone.

Memon said no country permitted armed groups to attack police and security forces or to set fire to government property. Those who took up arms, he stressed, must be brought to justice.

He stated that while protest was everyone’s right, the protesters should not be armed with weapons or tear gas guns. The purpose of a protest is not to hold the country or the federal capital hostage with armed groups. He warned that if such actions were tolerated, armed groups could emerge anywhere in the future.

The information minister stated that leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) too had been attending court proceedings for years, and members of the PTI should also seek relief through legal channels. He recalled that PPP leaders such as President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur were imprisoned, yet despite having a government in Sindh, they never resorted to such actions.

He said that even when their path was blocked during long marches and they faced violence, the PPP leadership firmly instructed its workers never to attack the state or misbehave with anyone under any circumstances.

He alleged that the KP chief minister used government funds to bring people to the protest. He also criticised the misuse of government machinery, highlighting how Gandapur openly boasted about having the public resources at his disposal. The PTI was not inherently a bad party but its leader ruined it, Memon said as he criticised Imran for speaking about revolution while his own children and relatives lived comfortably abroad. “What kind of revolution is this where their children enjoy life in cold countries while the children of the nation endure hardship and violence?” he asked.

The information minister stated that protests were organised by the PTI during significant events such as the visit of the Chinese president, negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, and now the visit of the president of Belarus. He alleged that India and Israel funded PTI’s election campaigns and that the late Arshad Sharif had named those who provided the funds.

He claimed that those behind PTI’s funding aimed to incite protests in Pakistan during critical moments. He stressed that in politics, national interests must take precedence over personal gains. Referring to the protest call on November 24, he noted it could have been held on November 30 instead, but it was deliberately timed to project a negative image of Pakistan internationally.