Swabi Democratic Alliance to hold protest on Imran’s visit

SWABI: The Swabi Democratic Alliance has convened the session of the District Council on October 26 to take its members into confidence about a protest sit-in at district headquarters and Shawa Adda during the visit of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to the district.
The session of the Razaar and Swabi tehsil councils have also been convened.PTI Chairman Imran Khan is scheduled to visit the residence of provincial Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai on November 1 in connection with the merger of the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) into PTI.
The Swabi Democratic Alliance made the decision at a meeting here.All members of the alliance attended the meeting except the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) that has rejoined the PTI-led coalition government.
The meeting said the alliance sought the release of funds to the district government. It was told that Imran Khan would be welcomed with black flags and the protest sin-in.District Nazim Ameer Rehman, who chaired the meeting, said that the district government couldn’t be run without funds. He said the PTI government had already finalised a formula for the distribution of funds so it should be implemented.
He said the Swabi Democratic Alliance had asked its workers to reach Karnal Sher Khan Chowk to welcome Imran Khan with the black flags. “We are democratic people. It is our right to stage a peaceful protest,” he said.
Ameer Rehman, who is also district president of the Awami National Party (ANP), said the Swabi Democratic Alliance would never compromise on the rights of the people, who voted for them.
He said there were no rules of business and no facilities for the elected representatives of the people. “We want the implementation of the Local Government Act 2013 in letter and spirit. No discrimination is acceptable to us. Releasing more funds to the district governments run by the PTI and less to the ones run by opposition parties would be resisted,” he said.