SWABI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders here will launch a campaign for lifting of ban on new gas connections, which, they claim, had been imposed by the PML-led federal government to weaken the position of PTI in the district.

Sources said here on Saturday that a meeting of the local PTI leaders and activists was held in this connection the other day which was presided over by MNA Aqibullah Khan, brother of KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser. They said that the meeting discussed the ways to counter the PML-N government’s strategy.

The sources said that the local leaders believed that the ban on gas connections had been imposed to ‘defame’ the PTI leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They said that the PTI had devised a strategy that included a peaceful campaign, followed by a protest in Kernel Sher Khan Shaheed Chowk, blocking motorway at Swabi and finally, if needed, a protest in front of the parliament.

The sources said that the PTI leaders would hold meetings at the union council level in the district and brief people about the federal government’s ban policy. They alleged that by banning new gas connections the federal government wanted to weaken the position of PTI leaders. The sources said that the people would be told that the authority of gas provision rested with the federal government.

They said that the federal government had given free hand to PML-N leader Amir Muqam to inaugurate gas schemes, while PTI leaders had been ignored in this regard.

ANNIVERSARY: The leaders and workers of Awami National Party from Swabi would participate in the death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan at Charsadda on Sunday (today).

ANP’s district president Ameer Rehman and parliamentarians said here at a meeting on Saturday that the workers and leaders would leave for Charsadda in a procession. Former provincial minister Zar Shaid Khan said that all party workers were proud of the contributions and sacrifices of their leaders.

Published in Dawn January 22nd, 2017