PESHAWAR: PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah has asked Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan to avoid involving his party workers in useless rallies and improve capacity of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to carry out development schemes in the province.

Talking to delegations of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers here on Thursday, he said that it was time to keep the nation united, particularly at a time when India and terrorists were trying to destabilise Pakistan through different tactics.

The country, he said, was passing through very crucial time and it was need of the hour that entire nation should forge unity.

He alleged that PTI was following the policy of anti-state forces for the only purpose to get power.

Mr Shah said that it was prime duty of the provincial government to control cases of kidnapping for ransom and extortion, corruption, poverty and unemployment instead of destabilising the federal government through repeated sit-ins and protest rallies.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PML-N president said that the provincial government had failed to overcome corruption, advising Imran Khan to stop protest rallies and improve performance of his party’s government in the province.

The Raiwind march, he said, would prove a futile exercise and PTI would be unable to get any political benefit out of confrontational politics. “If PTI failed to fulfil its responsibilities by initiating development schemes the nation would reject it altogether.

Mr Shah said that the PTI chief should be mentally prepared for a crushing defeat in the 2018 general elections as the voters would not like to support his party in any future elections because of its polices.

He said that the Indian forces used to open unprovoked firing in a state of frustration, but it could not pressure Pakistan as the armed forces fully supported by the nation were ready to respond to any attack. He appreciated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his firm stand on Kashmir issue.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016