KP CM says PTI still open to hold talks with ‘the real power brokers’

ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Sohail Afridi on Thursday came down hard on the government for repeatedly preventing him from meeting jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan, but did add that doors for holding talks with “real power” and those who claim to be “champions of democracy” are still open.

Talking to journalists outside Adiala Jail, where he reached for the tenth consecutive time since taking over as Chief Minister, Afridi maintained that his party is still ready to hold talks with “the real power brokers and those who claim to be champions of democracy”.

A visibly perturbed Afridi questioned why he was being repeatedly barred from meeting his leader in jail. “Am I the Chief Minister of another country? Am I not a Pakistani? If not, why am I being halted from meeting my leader?”

Thursday had been designated as a visitation day for PTI leaders. Afridi, accompanied by Special Assistant for Information Shafiullah Jan, other party leaders, and supporters, was stopped by police at the Daghal checkpoint and prevented from proceeding to the jail.

To a question about the 14-year sentence handed down to former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Faiz Hameed, he said that Faiz Hameed was an employee of an institution, and if that institution has punished him, it is their internal matter.

Afridi said that the move violated the Islamabad High Court (IHC’s) directives and portrayed an alarming message to the world about the treatment of citizens from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

“You have installed barriers here, what kind of message do you want to give the world?” he asked, asking, “Do you want to give a message to the world that the discriminatory treatment continued with the people of Khyber Paktunkhwa?

He also condemned the action against Khan’s sister and PTI workers on Tuesday outside Adiala Jail. “Khan’s sisters are non-political. Using water cannons in this weather is inhuman,” he said, adding that the PTI chairman was being “illegally detained,” while “a fake Chief Minister of Punjab, who is herself a woman, is allowing such treatment against Khan’s sister.”

Afridi said that visiting Adiala to meet his leader is his democratic right. I do not go abroad for 10 days — his passport has been put on the stop list. They should focus on their governance. I know what to do, my province knows, and my people know, he said.

Afridi alleged that “powerful quarters” had been pursuing a “minus-Imran” policy for over three years. He said similar tactics had been used from 1947 to 2022, but previously, such strategies targeted “fake leaders.” “This country is not anyone’s personal property — it belongs to all of us,” he said, adding that no one had the authority to dictate when or where PTI could hold peaceful protests.

He warned that Pakistan’s youth were leaving the country, GDP was declining, and the situation was heading toward disaster. If the government failed to act wisely, he said, Pakistan would not even have the funds to repay its debts.

Afridi returned from Adiala Jail after he was denied a meeting with Khan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025