Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa CM Pervez Khattak arrives in Swabi. PHOTO: AFP
“We are coming to Islamabad tomorrow. I am taking the whole province with me and the tsunami [of PTI supporters and activists] would make a stop (only) at Bani Gala to take Imran Khan (with them to the protest venue) and prove that Pashtun can do that,” Khattak said while addressing a public gathering at his native Nowshera district on Sunday.
He asked the participants whether they are coming with him tomorrow (Monday) or not and told them that he knows the whole population of the Nowshera district by face and wants to see everyone at the marching site in Swabi by 10am.
“I will lead the rally and we would go straight to Bani Gala. We would open our paths, throw the containers away and will see what happens then.”
Khattak expressed his anger over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for ordering the roads linking K-P with the federal capital to be blocked by placing containers on them and threatened them with dire consequences.
“You have taunted Pashtun. You have closed our routes and disconnected us from Pakistan. If you separate us from Pakistan, I won’t let you come to my province,” he said, adding, “The prime minister held a public gathering in K-P two days ago and the K-P government didn’t try to stop him.”
Khattak described the roads blockade as ‘unconstitutional’ and asked the judiciary to take notice of this unconstitutional action. “We ask the judiciary to take action against this blocking of the roads.”
Khattak also accused the prime minister of not giving rights to smaller provinces and said “when the people of some province demand their just rights, his party (the PML-N) calls them traitors”.
He said the prime minister’s biased attitude is forcing them to become ‘rebels’ “for he is not giving them their rights and also not listening to them”.
“Don’t force us to become rebels because if we became rebels the country would get ruined. This is our country and we have the right to go and meet our leader. If you stop us, we would become rebels and would go for (the) extreme.”
He said the rally from Swabi would prove that K-P is on the side of the PTI and vowed that they would stay in Islamabad until the prime minister resigns from his office.
Khattak also said since the federal government has itself blocked Islamabad so if Imran Khan does so he would be justified in doing this.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2016.
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