Chief Minister Muhammad Suhail Afridi addressed a major press briefing at Pukhtunkhwa House in Islamabad, urging the nation to seriously review the period from 9 April 2022 to 9 April 2026 and examine how far Pakistan has slipped. He accused the removal of a democratic government on 9 April 2022 through closed-door decisions and warned that the country has been in steady decline since then.<\/p>\n
Mr. Afridi said that economic indicators tell a stark story: where GDP growth might have risen from 6.1% to 7% with stronger agricultural, industrial and export performance, the reality is a fall to roughly 2.7% growth and nearly 45% of the population pushed below the poverty line. He stressed that purchasing power has been severely eroded as fuel prices climbed from around Rs150 per litre to levels between Rs380 and Rs458 while incomes have not increased, leaving ordinary citizens deeply anxious.<\/p>\n
Turning to governance, the chief minister criticised the current rulers for lacking a clear policy or reform agenda and for concentrating on retaining power and targeting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He said people are openly rejecting these policies and asking where the country is being led. On external accounts he warned that apparent foreign exchange reserves of about $21 billion largely reflect loans and temporary support, while the trade deficit has topped $20 billion and exports are declining. If friendly creditors call back funds, he cautioned, reserves could fall below $10 billion, threatening currency depreciation and a surge in public debt.<\/p>\n
Affirming PTI’s commitment to constitutional and civil freedoms, Mr. Afridi said that peaceful protest has become necessary to defend true liberty, rule of law, an independent judiciary and free journalism. He announced that the party will hold a one-day, peaceful demonstration on 9 April at Liaquat Bagh to highlight these concerns to the world and requested official permission for the event. If permission is denied, he said, demonstrators will stage protests at locations where workers are prevented from assembling and will treat every such site as a public gathering.<\/p>\n
Detailing the plan, the chief minister announced that a convoy would depart Peshawar at 11:00am on 9 April and that contingents from districts along the route would join. He also emphasised that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has prepared a contingency plan for monsoon rains and possible natural disasters since January, with departments mobilised to provide immediate relief and protection.<\/p>\n
On security policy, Mr. Afridi maintained that operations alone have not solved militancy, noting that 22 major operations and more than 16,000 intelligence-based actions failed to eradicate terrorism. He argued for a comprehensive political and social strategy involving all stakeholders. He criticised a recent operation in the Tirah valley as lacking clear purpose and warned that promises to return displaced people within two months were unrealistic given winter conditions.<\/p>\n
Addressing political fairness, the chief minister challenged those who claim PTI or its ideals are finished to come to any district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and face the public. He offered rivals equal access to platforms and facilities, while lamenting what he described as discriminatory arrests and harassment of party workers in Karachi, Lahore and Quetta. Reflecting on FATA integration, he said the merger has given new opportunities to tribal youth and warned against any irresponsible moves that could provoke serious backlash.<\/p>\n
Mr. Afridi reiterated that PTI will continue its democratic, constitutional and peaceful struggle to defend citizens’ rights and press for political stability as a prerequisite for economic recovery, while keeping open the option of broader actions, including long marches and nationwide protests, if demonstrators are mistreated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chief Minister Muhammad Suhail Afridi says PTI will mobilize April 9 march from Peshawar to protest economic decline and seek permission for a peaceful one-day rally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}