MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Thursday urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership to prioritise the swift completion of lists identifying missing and deceased party workers.
“Our priority should be to finalise the lists of party workers who were killed, arrested, or are still missing after the law enforcement agencies’ crackdown on our peaceful sit-in in the federal capital,” he told a meeting attended by party leaders here. The meeting was also attended by opposition leader in the National Assembly Umar Ayub Khan, Member National Assembly Shahzada Gustasap Khan, former provincial minister Shaukat Yousufzai, PTI’s provincial vice-president Kamal Saleem Swati and others.
The participants discussed the situation that arose after the crackdown on PTI’s sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad earlier this week. Gandapur said that details of the missing, deceased and arrested party workers and office-bearers were being finalised promptly.
“Once these lists are completed, we will initiate the distribution of compensation of Rs10 million each to the families of deceased, and legal proceedings will begin to secure the release of arrested party workers and office-bearers,” he said.
He added that PTI’s legal team had been tasked with preparing necessary formalities to lodge the first information report against law enforcement agencies for allegedly directly targeting peaceful workers and party leaders during the crackdown.
The chief minister, who had already announced that the ongoing protest would continue until the party’s founding chairman is released but called it off, assured attendees that party workers would not be abandoned at this critical time. “Our party workers are assets who have stood firm against unprecedented persecution to secure their leader Imran Khan’s freedom. We will never leave them alone during this difficult period,” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, Shaukat Yousufzai told reporters that the federal government should have avoided what he alleged was bloodshed. “The government by resorting to firing on peaceful protesters has set a dangerous precedent,” he said. “A large number of party workers have either been killed or arrested and tracing their whereabouts is now the party’s top priority,” he added.
Shaukat Yousufzai admitted that internal issues within the party had caused some setbacks during the ongoing sit-in. “Raising such concerns within the party is part of the democratic process,” he said.
PTI MNA Shahzada Gustasap Khan, who had defeated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif in the February 8 general elections in NA-15, said that former first lady Bushra Bibi did not participate in any meetings or programmes during her stay in Mansehra.
