PTI chief seeks immediate resignations from PM, interior minister

ISLAMABAD: Following the government’s debacle in controlling Islamabad situation, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  (PTI) Imran Khan on Sunday called for immediate resignation of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal.

“Law Minister Zahid Hamid should also have taken responsibility and resigned much earlier,” he said in a statement released by the PTI.

An abortive crackdown by security forces to clear the capital’s main artery of hundreds of activist of a religious group sparked countrywide protests, led to closure of TV channels and blockade social networking sites.

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Khan said it was time the Nawaz Sharif’s puppet prime minister along with the interior minister resign at once as they had totally mishandled a situation that could have been dealt with in a timely and prudent manner.

He said the government’s stated position was they would make public the Zafarul Haq Committee report and punish the guilty. That was also demanded by the CM Punjab.

“By backtracking on this position, and allowing the highly sensitive issue to fester and then conducting an operation that ended in disaster and led to violence spreading across the country, the PM and the interior minister have brought the country to a dangerous brink,” he said.

“Death and destruction have resulted across the country with people being killed, hundreds injured and public and private properties destroyed,” he added.

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The PTI chief said by not exposing those responsible, the government had also raised suspicions that there was something sinister to hide. Just like Dawn Leaks was a deliberate attempt to reiterate the Indian narrative of maligning the Pakistan

“Army, the question that has now arisen is whether the Khatm-i-Nubuwwat (the finality of Prophethood) issue was deliberately created and allowed to linger in order to play to another powerful lobby cultivated by international forces?” he asked.

It was apparent that the present government was obsessed with saving the Sharif mafia and their corruption even it meant destabilizing the country and undermining its democratic structures, Imran said.

“This cannot be allowed to continue. To save democracy and restore peace and stability, PTI demands the immediate resignation of the PM and interior minister and early elections,” he said.