PESHAWAR – Provincial Minister and senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Shaukat Yousafzai Friday once again offered the opposition’s Democratic Movement (PDM) an opportunity to hold talks on all issues except accountability matters, and urged the PDM to postpone its Peshawar rally in the larger public interest.
The statement came after his one-on-one meeting with the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan at Chief Minister House.
“Peshawar has witnessed a tragic terrorism incident in which innocent children of a madrassa were targeted. The PDM should reconsider its Peshawar rally in view of the potential threat of terrorism. The provincial government will not impose any ban on rallies and processions,” he added.
On the contrary, all the rallies and processions of the opposition would be given full security. The PDM should not play with the lives of people to save the corruption of some leaders, Shaukat Yousafzai said.
“The Pakistan army and police have made huge sacrifices to eradicate terrorism. However, speeches are being made in PDM rallies against Pak Army which is reprehensible and making enemies of the country happy.
This is providing an opportunity to the enemy to propagandize against Pakistan,” he added.
Shaukat Yousafzai said the nation stood with its security agencies in the fight against terrorism adding the opposition had no agenda of public interest.
If they had an agenda on public issues, the government was ready to negotiate with them, he said, adding the aim of PDM was to save corruption.
The minister further said that all the indicators of the economy were moving in the right direction as Prime Minister Imran Khan was aware of inflation and was taking strict measures to control it.
Shaukat Yousafzai said the invitation for talks should not be considered as a weakness of the government, adding we were ready for any situation.
However, the interests of the country and the people were paramount, he added.
The minister said the opposition had the right to raise public issues, but in fact it wanted to protect the corruption of its leaders, which would not be allowed under any circumstances, Shaukat Yousafzai maintained.
