PTI leader says ‘damaged’ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House will not be repaired

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former speaker National Asembly Asad Qaiser has said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, allegedly damaged during Rangers raid a day ago, would not be repaired, and it would be opened for school children to witness this debacle.

“The kind of damage done to the KP House — we have decided that we would not get it repaired — it would be part of our history — the school children would visit the KP house to witness this debacle — we would tell them see this is democratic Pakistan, this is what happens here,” Qaiser, a sitting Member National Assembly (MNA), told the media on Sunday.

When asked about the whereabouts of Chief Minister KP Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI leader said, “As per our information, he was picked from the KP House.”

Qaiser, whose brother Adnan Khan, along with Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, the two sisters of Imran Khan, were sent on physical remand by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Sunday, gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the government for the recovery of Gandapur.

“If Ali Amin is not recovered in 24 hours, then we will call for protests across the country,” he said.

“On one hand, they want to bring constitutional amendment, on the other hand, they are threatening our MNAs and senators,” the PTI leader said, adding that the PTI decided to boycott the NA and Senate sessions and those of the standing committees for indefinite period.

Qaiser demanded immediate release of Imran Khan as well as PTI lawmakers and other members, who he said, were framed and arrested in fabricated cases.

Gandapur, Saturday, led a mammoth caravan of PTI activists from Peshawar to Islamabad—after removing all the barricades installed by the federal authorities to block his way. However, in a dramatic twist, just after the CM KP reached the Jinnah Avenue, and was almost at the protest destination — D-Chowk — he told the media that he was heading to the KP House.

Shortly after the CM reached the KP House, that is hardly a kilometre drive from the D-Chowk, rangers allegedly stormed the KP House and took away Gandapur. Since then, the CM KP, a close aide of PTI supremo and former prime minister Imran Khan, is said to be “missing.”

The PTI leadership has alleged that the security establishment kept Gandapur in illegal confinement, and demanded his release immediately. Some senior PTI leaders stated that Gandapur went to the KP House to get some rest after his tiresome two-day engagements related to the D-Chowk

protest, from where he was abducted.

But some PTI circles believe that Gandapur staged his own “abduction” since, according to them, he did not want to increase hostility with the security establishment.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Gandapur was holding talks with senior intelligence officials at a compound in KP House, and he was detained after refusing to announce calling off the protest, saying it was not his but Imran Khan’s prerogative to call off the protest.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024