Opposition tables wrong demands, says Punjab governor

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar has said that the demands tabled by the opposition parties were wrong, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Chaudhry Sarwar, in his statement to media, said that the opposition parties are not willing to hold protests and also undecided to lodge a sit-in.

He said that not a single patriotic Pakistani will participate in the sit-in, however, there are no restrictions on holding protests in a democratic system. He rejected any possibilities of martial law, saying the nation is politically mature now and thinks for democracy as the only system to run in the country.

Read: Humanitarian crisis deepens in occupied Kashmir: Chaudhry Sarwar

The governor added that the federal government constituted a powerful dialogue committee which invited the opposition parties to the table talks instead of spreading chaos.

Earlier on Saturday, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had said that the government is not mulling over the option to summon contingents of military troops in the federal capital Islamabad in view of the upcoming protests of the opposition parties.

Read: Read: Sheikh Rasheed says ‘JUI-F sit-in still in grey list’

While addressing a press conference alongside Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, the defence minister Pervez Khattak rejected the speculations regarding the government for considering an option to summon military troops in Islamabad during the forthcoming ‘Azadi March’ announced by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The statement was made by the defence minister Pervez Khattak, who is leading the committee formed to hold dialogues with the JUI-F leadership. The other members of the committee include Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, National Assembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser, Shafqat Mahmood, Noorul Haq Qadri, Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elhai and NA legislator Asad Umar.