• Afridi asks Punjab CM to ‘apologise’ over controversial remarks against other provinces• PTI shifts rally venue from Mazar-i-Quaid to Toll Plaza amid restrictions; youth asked to join Sept 27 campaign• Karachi mayor says PTI free to come to city if it follows the law
KARACHI/HYDERABAD: After a journey of more than six hours, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi finally reached the Karachi Toll Plaza in the early hours of Monday, with his convoy negotiating blockades, dug-up roads, and other hurdles that the party alleged were placed by the government to stop or delay his arrival.
The long-awaited arrival of the CM Afridi-led caravan from Hyderabad and Umerkot triggered scenes of celebration at the Toll Plaza where a crowd of PTI supporters, including women and children, had gathered to welcome them as fireworks lit up the night sky and jubilant workers raised slogans in their support.
The chief minister was accompanied by PTI Sindh president Haleem Adil Sheikh and other party leaders on the last leg of his five-day public mobilisation campaign in Sindh for the Sept 27 nationwide protest call to demand the hospitalisation and release of incarcerated ex-premier Imran Khan.
Before leaving Hyderabad for Karachi on Sunday evening, CM Afridi had accused the Sindh government of creating hurdles in his march and vowed that he would not leave the province without launching the ‘free Imran Khan’ movement with his rally in the port city. “If we cannot reach Karachi today, God willing, we will hold the rally tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then the day after. I will not take a single step out of Sindh without launching a street movement in Karachi. I will stay here until the objective is achieved.”
