PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – A few days after wrapping up a three-day trip to Lahore aimed at launching PTI’s street movement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Thursday that he would travel to Karachi on January 9.
Announcing the plan on social media platform X, the chief minister wrote: “Friday, January 9!” followed by “Karachi, Sindh, are you ready?”
Afridi said the purpose of his Karachi visit was to deliver “Imran Khan’s message” and that he would meet “all friends of the party.” He had earlier indicated that Karachi would be his next stop to mobilise party workers.
During his Lahore visit, the KP chief minister attempted to address supporters at Liberty Chowk but could not proceed after police sealed off all access roads by setting up checkpoints.
He also met PTI lawmakers at the Punjab Assembly, though the visit was marked by scuffles between members of his team and security personnel. Tense interactions between PTI leaders and journalists were also observed.
Afridi was prevented from entering the cantonment area to meet party leaders and was also denied access to the food street, which had been closed ahead of his arrival. He later went to Zaman Park amid a heavy police presence, while reports also emerged of PTI supporters being detained during the visit.
On Monday, Afridi wrote to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, protesting the way he was treated during his Lahore trip. He said the Punjab government had adopted an unusually strict and excessive security approach — including mass detentions and overt enforcement displays — which he described as “a message of intimidation rather than cooperation.”
He argued that “such measures were neither proportionate nor warranted and conveyed an intent that went well beyond legitimate security considerations.”
According to the KP chief minister, “taken together — protocol degradation, exce¬ssive policing optics, and synchronised digital vilification — the pattern is too consistent to be dismissed as coincidental.” He described the conduct as “beneath the status of a provincial government” and said it undermined the “collective credibility of federating units.”
Separately, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan stated that the KP chief minister’s visit to the provincial assembly would be reviewed by law enforcement agencies in light of CCTV footage and an initial inquiry report.