PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Sohail Afridi chaired an important meeting of Punjab parliamentarians in Lahore, where participants agreed to sustain and intensify public outreach as part of the Street Movement in the city.
Addressing the meeting, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said that the people of Lahore had come out onto the streets on their own the previous day, without any call or plan from the organisers.
He said that people were being subjected to raids at their homes and that children were being abducted by Punjab Police.
Participants observed that, in an environment where people were being forced to live in fear inside their own homes, going to prison was preferable to remaining silent.
They said the people of Pakistan could not be kept under intimidation and fear. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said the killing of Ashiq-e-Rasool Ishtiaq Ahmed by the Punjab Police was wholly unacceptable.
He said Ishtiaq Ahmed had been engaged in preparations for Milad when, Punjab Police personnel threw him into a cauldron of boiling oil, resulting in injuries that led to his martyrdom.
The Chief Minister said the struggle for genuine freedom would succeed on September 27 and that the entire nation would come out of its homes.
The meeting was attended by MPAs Owais Warraich, Mian Haroon Akbar, Mian Arqam Khan, Sheikh Imtiaz, Humble Karimi, Hassan Malik and Ali Asif Baga; MNA Brigadier Aslam Ghuman; Khurram Warraich and Moeen Qureshi; Senator Aun Bappi; and other political leaders.
Later, in a video message, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said that no call had been given for the previous day’s mobilisation in Lahore, yet large numbers of people had come out onto the streets voluntarily. He said the organisers had not even disclosed their destination, but people nevertheless came out to join them.
He maintained that the Punjab Police blocked their routes, switched off lights in areas they were travelling through, and pressured petrol station owners to deny fuel to their vehicles.
He further alleged that tents at their place of stay were dismantled and arriving workers were arrested by Punjab Police.
The Chief Minister reiterated that Ishtiaq Ahmed was an Ashiq-e-Rasool who had been preparing for Milad when he was thrown into a vessel of boiling oil that led to his martyrdom.
He criticised also criticized the media’s silence over the incident, saying journalism requires the truth to be reported as truth and facts to be presented as facts.
Referring to the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said that the slain journalist had been killed for raising his voice for truth and justice and that the nation continued to hold him in high esteem. The Chief Minister said Punjab Police personnel arrested workers and placed them in a prison van.
He said that when he stood on the police van in protest, the personnel showed no sense of responsibility or propriety. He said the police subsequently promised to negotiate and release the workers, but the workers were not released.
Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said that when he entered the police van in protest, the police drove away with him, effectively abducting him.
He said he was driven around Lahore for 15 minutes without security and was eventually left on the roadside, describing the incident as a serious security risk. He said these actions are part of a deliberate and premeditated strategy.
Referring to recent remarks by the Punjab Chief Minister, he said that she had stated only a few days earlier that her government faced threats not from India but from the other three provinces of Pakistan.
He maintained that the imposed and corrupt political group was seeking to destabilise and break up the country.
Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said he had made it clear previously that he did not face a security threat, but rather faced a threat from the very security arrangements intended to protect him.
He maintained that the Punjab Police had been politicised to such an extent that professional conduct, restraint and basic standards of propriety had been eroded. He said the hands of Punjab’s “imposed rulers” and their “courtier police” were already stained with blood. If they believed that coercive tactics could stop them, he said, they were mistaken.
The Chief Minister said the people of Lahore had come out in large numbers the previous day without any call and would once again come out on September 27 in pursuit of genuine freedom. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi warned the Punjab government and police to reconsider their conduct and exercise restraint. He warned that if the situation and conduct did not change, a strong response would follow from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026