PTI long march: After Karak address, KP CM's convoy to depart for Kohat
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday resumed PTI’s march as he addressed supporters in Karak, from where his convoy will depart for Kohat.
The opposition has gone ahead with its march despite warnings from the Centre, which has vowed to prevent any gatherings in Islamabad. The protest aims to demand the release of jailed party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan.
PTI decided to embark on the march after weekend talks with the federal government to bridge their differences failed for multiple reasons, particularly over the counterterrorism policy.
Addressing party supporters at Karak’s Jail Chowk on Monday, the chief minister again railed against the Centre’s counterterrorism policy and criticised past military operations and drone attacks.
Afridi also referred to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks from a day earlier, wherein the latter called him “immature”.
He went on to recall Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz’s remarks on the terrorism threat to her province, adding: “Suppose, I say that [my province] does not have a threat from India, but from the other three provinces, will you consider me mature?”
Earlier, Afridi’s focal person for digital media Yar Muhammad Khan Niazi shared a video on X of PTI supporters welcoming the KP CM at Karak’s Jail Chowk.
According to a post by CM Afridi, the people of Karak were to join the convoy at 12pm, with the departure set for 12:30pm, which faced a delay.
The convoy plans to stay overnight in Kohat, and then resume the journey towards Peshawar at noon on Oct 6. It will spend the night near Mattani.
The march so far
After launching the already-postponed march from Lakki Marwat on Sunday afternoon, the KP CM’s caravan reached Karak at night, where Afridi addressed supporters at Jail Chowk.
Ahead of the march, movement on several roads in KP’s Dera Ismail Khan, Upper and Lower South Waziristan, Tank and Hangu was restricted under Section 144 for varying periods.
On Monday, former KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur, who was leading PTI workers from DI Khan to Lakki Marwat, took a U-turn from Yarik because of road blockades and the prevailing law and order situation.
Noting that Section 144 had been imposed in the area for three days, Gandapur stressed that the party leadership had clearly directed workers not to damage public property or engage in any activity that could worsen the situation.
Nevertheless, he contended that the return should not be viewed as a withdrawal from the protest movement, but as a temporary decision.
In Karachi, a planned protest campaign in different areas was disrupted after police deployed personnel at several locations, blocked roads and detained several party workers and leaders.
The PTI claimed that police detained more than 75 of its leaders and workers, including women, from different parts of Karachi. It further alleged that arrests made in other parts of Sindh, including Sukkur, put the total number of detained PTI workers across the province at more than 100.
On Saturday night, an opposition delegation comprising PTI and Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP), and a joint team of the government and PPP held hours-long negotiations, which ended in a deadlock.
While the federal government blamed CM Afridi for the failure of negotiations, PTI denied the allegations and claimed that access to Imran, his medical treatment and the federal government’s counterterrorism policy were the key reasons.
According to PTI, the government agreed to restore meetings between Imran and his family members and lawyers from Tuesday, but “declined to make access to Imran Khan part of the proposed agreement”.
