PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Monday stopped Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers from staging rallies in reaction of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz demonstrations in the province, saying his party didn’t favour confrontation with political forces but was fighting for democratic and constitutional rights.

He was talking to PTI office-bearers from different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Islamabad, according to a handout issued in Peshawar.

The visitors had sought the chief minister’s permission for taking out rallies in response to those of PML-N and other opposition parties in the province.

The chief minister said PTI had taken a principled stand against rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Says party doesn’t favour confrontation with political forces

“We firmly believe a government based on corruption, rigging and malpractices can’t serve the people and instead it will always fall prey to pressures,” he said.

Khattak, however, said staging rallies against those of PML-N in the province was not a democratic and political way and instead, it was a path towards confrontation, which was against the manifesto of PTI.

He said his party considered the whole nation and workers of other political parties part and parcel of political system.

The chief minister said PTI didn’t want clash with anyone in the country, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as the lives of all people were dear to it and that it was his duty to serve the people equally as the chief executive of the province.

He said the Azadi March of PTI in Islamabad was to claim constitutional and democratic rights and that the peaceful march of thousands of PTI workers to the Red Zone of Islamabad, where parliament and PM House were located, without damaging a single plant or pot had proved that the party was very well organised.

Khattak said PTI chief Imran Khan had told party workers that they participated in Azadi March for a greater national cause and not personnel interest and that they would emerge as successful soon.

He said he was against the staging of rallies in other cities to create difficulties for opponents and general public and other political parties should also understand it.

The chief minister said PTI leaders and workers had stood like a rock in front of cruel rulers, who had come to power by rigged elections.

“The better and honourable way out of the prevailing political crisis is the resignation of the prime minister in a very peaceful and good decent so that the people could elect own people through fair and transparent polls to form government in the country, which could take independent and good decisions for the welfare of the poor,” he said.

Khattak praised PTI workers for exhibiting unity and discipline and said the PTI government in the province would never let the people down and continue bringing out the real change in their lives and establishing the supremacy of merit, justice and law.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2014