Imran Khan Made Me Chief Minister, But Heirs of Dynastic Politics Do Not Want Ordinary People to Rise: Sohail Afridi

Karachi — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has said Imran Khan made him chief minister, but the heirs of dynastic politics do not want an ordinary person to come forward.

Addressing a large Street Movement public gathering in Shahdadkot, he said corrupt political families, sardars, waderas and the elite would never want common people to be empowered. The rulers, he claimed, were looting public rights and national resources.

Afridi said the people of interior Sindh stood with Imran Khan. For decades a false narrative had been spread that only one party ruled the interior, but the crowd in Shahdadkot had shown otherwise.

He said Imran Khan was imprisoned without justification, his wife had also been jailed and his sisters had been subjected to what he called fascist state oppression. PTI workers, women, elders and children, he added, were facing severe reprisals.

According to Afridi, the 26th and 27th constitutional amendments had paralysed state institutions, especially the judiciary. Courts had allowed family members and personal doctors to meet Imran Khan and treat him, but the “imposed rulers” had thrown those orders in the dustbin. Contempt of court verdicts, he said, showed they did not care for the constitution, the law or the courts.

Every attempt to break Imran Khan had failed, Afridi said; he still stood firm like a rock and was looking to the people of Pakistan, not to rulers or powerful groups. His struggle, the chief minister claimed, was not for himself or for power but for the country’s freedom and the future of coming generations.

He asked the crowd whether they wanted to save that future, saying corrupt rulers looted public money to buy properties and islands abroad. The country belonged to the people, who would have to stand up themselves to protect its rights, resources and future.

“I belong to the middle class. Imran Khan made me chief minister. Anyone among you can become chief minister in this country,” he said, adding that dynastic political families had for decades sacrificed the public for their own interests.