ISLAMABAD: Overjoyed at the victory of his party’s candidate in the by-elections for a provincial seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan said on Monday that he would bring an end to the politics of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the main opposition party in KP Assembly, during the next general elections.

“I want to share with you that the PTI candidate has won the Dera Ismail Khan by-polls despite the united front of opposition parties in the province,” a beaming Mr Khan told his supporters.

Speaking to the participants of a sit-in at D Chowk, he criticised the federal government’s strategy to deal with floods in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is ruling Punjab for the fourth time, but the provincial government has failed to build dams to store additional water,” he said. “It was the responsibility of the government to prepare a strategy after the flood of 2010.”

“Don’t perform like an actor in the flood-affected areas,” he told Mr Sharif.

Mr Khan said that he would visit Sialkot and adjoining districts on Tuesday (today) and that he would never leave people alone in any difficult situation.

“It is the responsibility of all the countrymen, including PTI supporters, to help the people of flood-affected areas but we will also criticise the PML-N whose leadership is taking its turn again and again to rule the country,” he said.

Mr Khan alleged that the PML-N changed the locations of polling stations a day before polling during the last year’s general elections.

Though the sit-ins of the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in Islamabad have entered the fourth week, the leadership of the two parties have yet to announce a timeframe for the protests.

SUBDUED QADRI: Despite being a fiery orator, it seemed on Monday that PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri was running out of words during his speech as he kept on repeating his previous stance, like the PTI leader.

The participants of the sit-in were listening to their leader, but with tired expressions on their faces.

Dr Qadri said that the PPP government had promulgated governor rule in Balochistan after the killing of people of Hazara community, but the PML-N government was not ready for the resignation of Shahbaz Sharif in the wake of the Model Town killings.

“If the promulgation of governor rule in Balochistan was a right step, why it cannot be imposed in Punjab,” he asked.

The PAT chief said that the police had not launched an investigation into the Model Town incident despite registration of their FIR.

In a sarcastic tone, he asked legislators to introduce an amendment to the constitution envisaging cancellation of an FIR registered against rulers on murder charge. He said that the lawmakers had not taken up the issue of the sit-ins in the parliament, though they considered themselves to be representatives of the people.

He repeated his demand for dissolution of the assemblies without giving any deadline.

“We are not ready to accept a system which is violating the constitution,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2014