PM Shehbaz vows zero tolerance after PTI protest in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed his zero tolerance for any future sit-ins in Islamabad, resolving to take stern decisions.

Addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister while referring to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) recent protest in the federal capital, said that repeated marches on the capital city had forced them to rethink.

“With the collective deliberations, we had to take strict measures, to quell such scenes in future as we could no longer put all our resources and energies into it, leading to economic destruction,” PM Shehbaz added.

Shehbaz Sharif dubbed the PTI protest as an assault on Islamabad, however, he said that the law enforcement agencies dispersed the protest and provided relief to the public.

PM Shehbaz maintained that the economic losses were manifolds due to the PTI protest as the country’s stock exchange market, which had crossed the historic mark of 99,000 points, lost 4,000 points in a single day.

After the restoration of peace, the PSE rallied and crossed the earlier figure, he said.

A number of Rangers and police personnel were martyred whereas dozens of others were injured, he added.

PM Shehbaz lamented that the state cannot afford to waste its energies to tackle such protests on a daily basis.

The prime minister also appreciated the Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh police forces and other law enforcement agencies for quelling the protests and particularly thanked Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir for his cooperation to restore law and order in Islamabad.

PM Shehbaz said that the COAS Asim Munir provided his full support to quell the violent protest in the federal capital.

The prime minister stressed that the government would not let certain such situations in future happen under any condition.

“We will steer Pakistan out of the challenges,” he added.