Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday called on lawyers in Islamabad to stand up for an independent judiciary as he continued his efforts to rally support for the PTI’s street movement.

The KP CM made the remarks while addressing the legal fraternity at an event organised by the Islamabad Bar Association. After completing a three-day visit to Lahore, Afridi has announced Karachi as his next destination.

“If you do not stand up for the supremacy of the Constitution and the law and for an independent judiciary, then future generations will spit on us and you as well,” Afridi said.

He urged them to announce a lawyers’ movement, adding that the youth will support them. “Long live resistance,” the chief minister said.

“You must support the PTI founder [Imran Khan] against oppression and barbarity. Whose conscience is even one per cent alive will stand against the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments, as well as unfair trials — whether of journalists or politicians — and will demand the release of all political workers who are wrongfully in jail,” Afridi said.

CM Afridi also stressed that Imran did not seek his release, but rather a fair trial. “A convicted person was received at the airport,” the PTI leader said, apparently referring to ex-premier Nawaz Sharif landing in Islamabad after he returned to Pakistan in October 2023.

During his address, Afridi also praised Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, who was among the audience.

“Imaan Mazari has created a new history of resistance. The youth receive encouragement from her,“ Afridi said. He also mentioned that some journalists were recently sentenced after their “trials in absentia”.

“Arshad Sharif had to leave his country to save his life because he was not getting justice and security here, but he was not spared even abroad,” the KP CM said, referring to the journalist being shot dead in Kenya on Oct 23, 2022.

Afridi cautioned the lawyers that while the PTI was facing “oppression and fascism today”, it could be their turn tomorrow. “You will not be able to tolerate what the PTI has,“ he said.

Afridi once again lamented that he was repeatedly being denied a meeting with Imran, who is incarcerated at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.

“Three judges [of the IHC] issued orders for [my] meeting with the PTI founder, but the Adiala jail’s superintendent threw that directive in the trash,” the KP CM said.

He said that Imran was “fighting our war in jail”, adding that “those who took cars from the Toshakhana were the rulers and the person who took items legally was in prison“.

“They have incapacitated you all,” the chief minister said.

CM Afridi further said that “people from all schools of thought” in KP believed that a military operation was not the solution to rising militancy in the province.

“But there are still preparations for an operation. This is not a functioning system but hooliganism,” the chief minister said.