- Govt’s nonsensical approach a stumbling block to initiate parlays: Waqas
- Strongly condemns racial profiling of Pakhtuns
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vehemently criticized the fake government’s representatives for blaming PTI and its unlawfully imprisoned founder Imran Khan for the failure to initiate a dialogue, arguing that the real obstacle was the mandate thieves’ nonsensical approach and authoritarian rule.
PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, in a strongly-worded statement on Tuesday, lambasted the non-representative government for passing bucks onto PTI for the stalemate in parleys. He said that Imran Khan opened the window to talks by presenting two reasonable demands and forming an empowered negotiation committee, demonstrating his commitment to finding a negotiated solution to the current crisis.
Waqas made it clear that PTI founder’s two demands i.e., releasing unlawfully incarcerated prisoners and constituting judicial commissions to probe May 9 events and November 26th Islamabad massacre to bring the culprits to justice held the key to unlocking the door for constructive and meaningful dialogue, thus the government should accept these demands forthwith, as confidence building measures (CBM). He categorically stated that PTI would not beg for dialogue, no matter what, as the responsibility lay with the power-wielders, adding that it was up to them to initiate talks. Nevertheless, PTI CIS warned that the impasse would not harm the power usurpers, but would instead plunge the country deeper into crisis.
Waqas said that the power-hungry clique had already caused irretrievable damage to the country during the past two years during which PTI’s workers and leadership faced all state brutalities and barbarities including the Islamabad carnage, adding that even then, its leader, a prisoner of conscious, always opted for a negotiated settlement to the impasse.
However, he expressed astonishment that the power grabbers did not realize the gravity of the situation, as instead of welcoming PTI leadership’s positive gesture, the mandate thief government further accelerated its reign of terror to terrorize people and stifle the dissenting voices because the power usurpers aware that they would be the ultimate losers.
PTI CIS went on to say that the power greedy clique usurped the powers and lacking public mandate that was the reason they were always seeking an escape from the talks. Waqas pointed out that right to peaceful assembly was a cornerstone of any democratic society. However, at D-Chowk, protesters were sprayed with bullets, resulting in a dozen martyrs, hundreds injured and several hundred forcibly disappeared. He vowed that neither would these sacrifices go in vain nor would the perpetrators of this heinous crime escape accountability.
While strongly criticizing the racial profiling of Pakhtuns, he stated that this imposed ruling junta was hell-bent on sowing seeds of discord to cling to power, even at the cost of the country’s interests. Waqas strongly condemned the Islamabad police who attempted to detain two Pakhtun youth travelling with Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza Hamid Raza’s family solely based on their ethnicity and province of origin.
He noted that these attempts proved counterproductive, as PTI’s popularity graph increased with each passing day, with people largely alienated from the government due to its self-serving rule.
PTI CIS noted that this greedy and self-serving clique was little bothered about public and national issues, but always wrangling over power shares. Waqas recalled that the government achieved nothing during its over two and a half years’ reign of terror aimed at crushing PTI and its leaders and workers.
