If Standing With People Is Foolishness, I Will Repeat It Again and Again: Sohail Afridi

KARAK: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi has said he will continue to stand with the people and follow the principles of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, declaring that he would not bow before anyone.

Addressing participants of the PTI long march in Karak, the chief minister said Imran Khan was enduring hardships in jail for the sake of the people and that they would continue the struggle for “real freedom” until the end.

Sohail Afridi said the second day of the long march had begun and the participants would proceed towards Kohat.

“An establishment agent sitting on television says that I am foolish. If standing with my people is foolishness, then I will commit this foolishness again and again,” he said.

He added that if loving the country was considered foolishness, he condemned such so-called wisdom.

Sohail Afridi alleged that state institutions were failing to perform their constitutional responsibilities, claiming that courts were not providing justice and that the police had become a personal force, while the military was performing functions beyond maintaining law and order.

He said soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country were an integral part of the nation, but added that they opposed every policy that was against the interests of the people.

The chief minister claimed that there was growing public resentment against the existing system across the country and said the government would have to accept the people’s democratic demands.

He said they had already warned against resettling militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, warning that the province could once again be plunged into bloodshed.

According to Sohail Afridi, as the situation had now gone out of control, pressure was once again being exerted on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to launch a military operation.

He warned that imposing terrorism on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa again would be a deliberate plan that could result in bloodshed, displacement, destruction of business centres and drone attacks, with the alleged objective of paving the way for a military operation.

“I am a player of Imran Khan, and just as our leader told the powerful United States ‘Absolutely Not’, I too have told the powerful: ‘Absolutely Not’,” Sohail Afridi said.