MULTAN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said Chairman Imran Khan will announce the party manifesto on Tuesday (today) wherein he will present the agenda for their first 100 days in power.

Addressing a gathering of the party’s union council chairmen and vice chairmen, the PTI leader said the entire nation was protesting against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement regarding the Mumbai attacks.

“I was on an official visit to India as Pakistan’s foreign minister when the Mumbai attacks happened. I had two options – leave India immediately or stay there to plead the case of Pakistan. I could have been arrested as the foreign minister of an enemy country, but I preferred to stay there and held a press conference in Delhi to defend my country,” he claimed.

Qureshi questioned that if he could defend Pakistan while in Delhi, why Nawaz Sharif could not do so when he was in his own country. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbai should also clear his position whether he was with Pakistan or supported the statement of Nawaz Sharif.

He said the PTI would merge Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and also eliminate insurgency from Balochistan besides creating a province out of south Punjab on administrative instead of linguistic grounds.

“It took me two years to convince Imran Khan for the creation of south Punjab province,” he claimed.

He said there was a need to strengthen the federation by bringing balance among the provinces. He also said he will contest elections from NA-156 as well as one out of three provincial assembly constituencies of PP-213, PP-216 and PP-217.

“No one has so far applied for party ticket for NA-156 apart from me,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2018