Shehbaz assures cooperation as Afridi takes K-P helm

New CM urges PM to arrange meeting with PTI founder

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and newly-elected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi held a telephonic conversation on Thursday, during which the prime minister congratulated Afridi on his election.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, Shehbaz told Afridi that the federal government was ready to work with the provincial government in the national interest. "The federation is ready to work with you in the interest of Pakistan."

Speaking to the media in Rawalpindi, Chief Minister Afridi said the K-P government had written to the federal and Punjab governments for a meeting between the chief minister and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder, who is currently in Adial Jail.

Afridi said that the prime minister responded that he would look into the matter and inform him later. However, he added that no response had yet been received from either the federal or the provincial government.

Afridi expressed gratitude to the prime minister for his congratulatory message, saying that he had informed the prime minister that K-P is a province of 64 million people and that political and personal differences should not affect the public.

Responding to a question, the chief minister said that the PTI was often accused of doing protest politics but actually it had always engaged in peaceful demonstrations, which is its constitutional right. He said he will adopt legal means for meeting with the party founder.

Afridi stated that if an advisory council needed to be formed, he would do so himself as the chief minister. He said Quaid-i-Azam was the founder of Pakistan and that for him, Pakistan comes first before anything else.

He added that since assuming the office, he had initiated steps for the release of the PTI founder and would consult him regarding the formation of the provincial cabinet, while also presenting his own recommendations.

CM gets free hand

Speaking to the media outside the Adiala Jail, meanwhile, PTI Secretary General Barrister Salman Akram Raja said that the PTI founder has given free hand to Chief Minister Afridi regarding formation of the provincial cabinet.

Raja spoke to journalists after a hearing of Toshakhana-II case against the PTI founder Imran Khan. He said that Afridi was not allowed to meet the party founder, therefore, they would move the court for the meeting.

"Imran Khan has stated that the chief minister is free to form his cabinet and may include whomever he wants," Raja told journalists. "The chief minister was not accorded the respect in Punjab that he deserved, so the party will move the court against the denial of the meeting."