KOHAT: Pakistan Thereek-i-Insaf vice-president Sher Afzal Marwat has announced to embark upon a country-wide campaign to push for the release of their founding chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan and other party activists from jail.

He was speaking at a power show held in Shakardara area here in connection with the party’s election campaign for the by-election on KP-91 scheduled for April 21.

MNA Shehryar Afridi, MNA Shahid Khattak from Karak, MNA Yousuf Jan from Hangu, MPA Shafi Jan, Gumbat tehsil nazim Sajid Iqbal and Lachi tehsil nazim Mohammad Ehsan also attended the rally held in support of party candidate Daud Afridi.

In his speech, Mr Marwat said the party would launch a campaign to push the government for quashing ‘all the fake FIRs’ against their leader. He claimed the morale of Imran Khan was high and the government had been unable to break his resolve by “offering” him several deals.

He said PTI would protest the stealing of its mandate through what he said Form 47. He said the election candidates and their families were subjected to immense torture to force them to leave PTI.

He said Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had sent him to Kohat to clarify that Daud Afridi was the party’s nominated candidate, and that Imtiaz Qureshi, who had already been expelled from the party, was making false claims that he was contesting the polls on the PTI ticket.

ARREST: The Hangu police acting on a tip-off raided two archaeological sites in the Afghan Refugee Camp area and arrested two outlaws along with rocket launchers, hand grenades and automatic weapons on Tuesday.

DSP Thall tehsil Shaukat Hayat Bangash, after getting information about the presence of high-profile criminals there, led a team to the area. The police recovered a Kalashnikov, a rocket launcher, four hand grenades and 360 cartridges from their possession.

Both were booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, a man was robbed of motorcycle, mobile phone and wallet at gunpoint here on Monday night.

The victim, Ilyas told the police that he was on his way home from the city when he was stopped by a robber at gunpoint. The police launched a search for the arrest of the robber.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2024