Tarar slams threats of violence

Minister says K-P CM's march on Islamabad, Punjab aims to repeat May 9 mayhem

ISLAMABAD:

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur made his intention clear that he wanted to create another May 9-like chaos in the country by announcing his plans to march on Islamabad and Punjab by force.

In a statement, the information minister condemned the remarks made by Chief Minister Gandapur about the use of force in the protests, calling them an admission of his failure in governing his own province effectively.

"The chief minister's threat of firing bullets is a clear manifestation that he is incapable of running the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government. His threats to march on Islamabad and Punjab with force are nothing but an attempt to repeat the May 9," he added.

May 9 refers to the violent attacks last year on the state institutions by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters after the arrest of party founder Imran Khan in a corruption case. Several sensitive installations were targeted, vandalised and damaged during the violence.

Tarar slammed the K-P chief minister's "transition from verbal abuse to hurling threats" of violence. "There is nothing democratic, political, or parliamentary about the PTI provincial government's statements, actions, or conduct," he said.

Warning that this approach would only harm the chief minister, and not anyone else, Tarar lamented that the provincial leadership of the PTI had never focused on competing with the Centre or Punjab in areas such as education, healthcare, employment, or economic improvement.

"If the PTI wanted to bring about a revolution, it should focus on transforming these sectors for the betterment of the people," he said. The real competition should have been in providing relief to electricity consumers, as the current government has done in Islamabad and Punjab.

"It [the provincial government] should have built hospitals and educational institutions to serve the people," the minister continued, adding that unfortunately, corruption and incompetence had reached their peak in K-P.

Tarar also accused the PTI of trying to disrupt the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in a similar fashion it had attempted to sabotage President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan with its previous sit-ins in Islamabad in 2014.