PESHAWAR, Oct 7: The government didn’t create any hurdle in the way of Imran Khan’s march in the settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Provincial Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain here on Sunday.
He said that police escort and jammers were provided to Imran Khan to avert any untoward incident. Huge contingents of police were deployed in some areas for providing security to the marchers instead of hindering the march, he added.
The minister told a press conference that before commencement of the peace march by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, an impression was created that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would not allow the marchers to pass through its limits.
However, the impression was proven wrong when the ANP-led provincial government directed all the district administrators and district police officers to ensure smooth passing of the convey of vehicles through their areas at any cost, he added.
“We had brought containers for the safety of some important installations in different areas,” Mr Hussain said. He added that government had planned to place those containers in front of the installations if peace marchers turned violent owing to any reason.
“Thousands of our party activists have sacrificed their lives for restoration of peace. We are struggling against violence then how we can stop a peaceful march,” the minister questioned.
He said that credit went to the democratic government for allowing peace march. If it was an undemocratic government, it would not have allowed the democratic activity (peace march), he said.
Mr Hussain appreciated PTI chief Imran Khan for adopting a democratic way to protest the drone attacks. “It is the beauty of democracy,” he added.
Imran Khan was cooperating with the provincial administration as he said time and again that he would not insist on proceeding to Kotkai, the destination of the peace march, if he was stopped anywhere by the law enforcement agencies, the minister said.
To a question regarding the foreigners, who participated in the peace march and entered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without obtaining no-objection certificate, he said that police could have stopped them but avoided it as government didn’t want to create any unpleasant situation.