KARACHI: Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid on Monday criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s planned ‘Islamabad lockdown’ protest on Nov 2 and called it unjustified.

Talking to reporters outside the residence of Amjad Sabri which he visited to hand over a compensation cheque for Rs10 million to the slain qawwal’s family, he said there was no justification for the PTI’s protest because its demand for investigation into the leaked Panama Papers had been initiated by the Supreme Court.

He said it was strange that whenever there was a tense situation between Pakistan and India, PTI chief Imran Khan gave a protest call against the government.

“It’s not the first time that the nation and country’s armed forced are united against foreign aggression and the PTI is trying to strike against this unity. Whatever they are doing is not in the national interest.”

Answering a question, the minister said the PTI chief had lost all moral and technical reasons to give a call for the protest when his demand for the judicial investigation into the Panama leaks was already under way.

Mr Khan and his party should wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court for justice before planning any protest, he added.

“There are two kinds of leadership that we have been experiencing,” he said. “One is working for the development and turning around the country’s economy. The other unfortunately has adopted protest, sit-in and container as their only policy. They don’t want development. They want anarchy and panic-like situation in the country. But they should not forget that there is a defined law to handle any such situation which affects people’s regular lives and challenges writ of the state.”

Earlier, Mr Rashid met members of the Sabri family and handed the cheque to them on behalf of the prime minister. The compensation was announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the Amjad Sabri’s family after he was gunned down in Karachi in June this year.

Published in Dawn October 25th, 2016