Showing discontent: QWP activists protest sacking of ministers

Accuse PTI chief Imran Khan and leader Jahangir Tareen of being corrupt.

MANSEHRA:

Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) activists on Saturday protested over the sacking of two QWP ministers from the provincial cabinet.

QWP’s Ibrar Hussain Tanoli and Bakht Baidar were earlier expelled from the cabinet by K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on the advice of PTI chief Imran Khan. To condemn the move, QWP workers blocked Karakoram Highway for over three hours and threatened to move the apex court against Imran Khan and PTI leader Jehangir Tareen.

Led by district president of QWP Dildar Hussain, party workers and supporters of Tanoli convened a rally and blocked the highway along different points. They chanted slogans against Khan and Tareen, accusing both of being corrupt.

Hussain accused Khan of smuggling timber from Mansehra to Punjab and held Tareen responsible for smuggling phosphate from Hazara division. He said Khan had failed to deliver in accordance with his promises, claiming that by sacking the ministers without evidence, Khan actually turned them into ‘political martyrs’.

Hussain claimed ten ministers from PTI had also been accused of corruption, but they were spared. He added Tanoli will soon move the Supreme Court against PTI’s decision.

Meanwhile, members of All Pakistan Tanoli Itehad held a meeting presided over by Sabir Hussain Tanoli, the association’s central president, over the sacking of Abrar Hussain Tanoli, who earlier served as the provincial minister for environment.

Participants of the meeting condemned the move, claiming Tanoli had stopped tree felling and timber smuggling from Hazara which was not acceptable to influential timber smugglers who connived with the PTI’s leadership to get rid of him.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.