Newly-elected Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohammad Sohail Afridi said he believed in the supremacy of the law and would confront the Centre’s every unlawful and unconstitutional step.
“A narrative is being built that I will go for confrontation with the federal government. Yes, I will, if anything is done by it against the Constitution. I will continue to speak for the supremacy of the Constitution,” he told a provincial assembly session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati here.
The chief minister said that he wrote letters to the chief justice of Pakistan and federal and provincial governments and even petitioned the Islamabad High Court for ensuring his meeting with detained founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan but to no avail.
He said he would challenge the federal government over the continued denial of his meeting with Imran and would boycott meetings called by it.Mr Afridi said that after exhausting all legal options for the purpose, he would place his case before the people to devise the future course of action.
He said that the law and order situation was worsening as the decisions were taken behind closed doors.
“Our [PTI’s] stand is that policies for KP should be made by the province’s government and its residents only,” he said, vowing to resist any decisions taken behind closed doors.
The chief minister said his government welcomed peace talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban in Doha but had reservations about it as elders and public representatives from KP should be part of the dialogue as advocated by the PTI founder.
