CM Afridi adamant on holding long march, says will not allow repeat of May 9 events

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Saturday remained adamant about holding the long march on October 4, vowing to prevent a repeat of the events of May 9. His remarks came as the government and the opposition are scheduled to hold the second round of talks today in the Speaker’s Chambers at 2pm. In the first round, both sides apprised each other of their respective positions on different issues, including the long march. In August, PTI announced a long march to Islamabad on September 27 against what it called the “illegal imprisonment” of the party founder and ex-prime minister Imran Khan. However, a couple of days before its scheduled long march, the party postponed the march till October 4. In a social media post on X, CM Afridi said PTI was the largest and most popular political party in Pakistan. “Pakistan is a democratic country whose Constitution grants us the right to peaceful protest.” On October 4, he said an “ocean of people” would begin its journey from Gandi Chowk in Lakki Marwat at 1pm. The party would continue its struggle until the supremacy of the Constitution and the law was ensured in Pakistan and an independent judiciary was restored, CM Afridi added. “All demands of the PTI are in accordance with the constitution and the law.” In his post, he stressed that the party would “neither allow May 9 to happen again nor allow anyone else to repeat it”. In a post on X a day earlier, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, an ally of the PML-N government, pressed PTI to unconditionally call off the long march, which, he said, would allow the country to come together to address the threat of terrorism and threats emanating from neighbouring countries. Bilawal also welcomed the government’s decision to work with his party and jointly engage with the opposition “to find political solutions to political problems”. On Friday, PTI Khyber Pakh­tun­khwa Secretary Information Shaukat Yousafzai said that the party’s protest march would start from the southern districts and be led by CM Afridi. “The march on October 4 will take place at any cost,” he said in a statement. The meeting on Friday between government and opposition representatives, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, was aimed at defusing the country’s ongoing political crisis.