KP CM defiant on PTI's Islamabad march as Centre keeps up governor's rule, emergency threat

PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi expressed the resolve on Tuesday to go ahead with the PTI’s planned march to Islamabad on Oct 4, saying that the protesters would reach Swabi in the first phase. His assertion comes as the march — which the PTI has announced as part of its nationwide protest to demand the release of its founder, Imran Khan — remains a major bone of contention between the government and the main opposition party, with both taking entrenched positions. The government has even threatened to send the PTI government in KP packing by imposing the governor’s rule or an emergency if its leadership did not withdraw its plan to march on Islamabad. Afridi, however, sounded defiant while addressing a press conference in Peshawar on Tuesday. He said the planned protest would be “unmatched in the country’s history”, adding in its first phase, the protesters would reach Swabi, which borders Punjab. After reaching Swabi, he continued, “we must move forward“. Afridi also warned against any “adventure” and said the “people of KP will protect their mandate as they did during the February 8 general elections”. The KP CM also accused the ruling PML-N of conspiring to include its workers in PTI ranks to sow chaos. “We are peaceful and our workers will be unarmed; anyone holding anything in his hand or creating chaos would not be from amongst us,” he said. Afridi said that there was a chain of command of workers involved in the march and in case of the disappearance of a leader, another person would replace him. In response to a question about backdoor contacts with the government, he said that the party leadership might have such contacts, but he had been tasked with the resistance. Coming back to his criticism of the Centre, he said the federal government had the same counterterrorism policy in KP for the past 22 years and it had been unable to put an end to terrorism. Only the province could do this, he added. On Monday, federal