Blame game: Info minister hits out at ANP, PML-N over protests outside APS

Flays parties for preventing Imran from entering school’s premises.

PESHAWAR: Minister for Information Mushtaq Ghani accused political parties for instigating protests outside Army Public School (APS) to prevent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan from entering the school’s premises.

Speaking at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, the information minister said nearly 12 workers from the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) orchestrated the protest to ridicule the PTI and its chairman.

“However, some of the workers who were protesting outside the school were members of the Shuhada (martyrs) forum constituted in the wake of the APS attack,” he said.

According to Ghani, political workers also tried to block the routes taken by PTI chief’s convoy.

“This was done for political point-scoring,” he said. “However, I fail to understand why they would try to create hurdles for the PTI as the party has never stood in the way of any political leader.”

The information minister said the scourge of militancy in the province has been inherited from the previous government.



Earlier on Wednesday, parents of children martyred in the Peshawar attack protested against PTI chief Imran Khan as he arrived at Army Public School.

Imran, who was accompanied by his wife Reham Khan, was forced to use another entrance as parents refused to let him inside the premises from the front gate. A large number of protesters criticised the PTI chief for not taking timely action over the APS massacre despite being elected as a member of national assembly and the chief of the ruling party in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.