Senior PTI leader Firdous Ashiq Awan has left the party. (Image: Twitter)
He is the latest politician to resign from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Firdous Ashiq Awan on Friday resigned from Imran Khan’s party over recent violent and “terrorist activities” and said the former prime minister and Pakistan cannot go together, becoming the latest senior leader to quit the opposition party.
Awan, 53, served as the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting from 2019 to 2020.
He is the latest politician to resign from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Awan, a former federal minister for population welfare, said she was parting ways with the PTI over the party’s “violent and terrorist activities”.
I believe that martyrs… their love and respect for the country is part of our faith. Those who insulted the martyrs attacked the foundation and ideology of Pakistan.
Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying, “Imran Khan and Pakistan cannot walk together.”
His resignation came after other top PTI leaders, including the party’s general secretary Asad Umar, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, defected from the main opposition party.
He condemned the actions of Khan’s supporters who attacked and torched sensitive defense installations across Pakistan on 9 May.
Violent protests erupted after paramilitary Rangers arrested Khan from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises on 9 May.
Activists of his party vandalized a dozen military installations, including the Lahore Corps Commander House, Mianwali Airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad, in response to Khan’s arrest.
The mob also stormed the Army Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi for the first time.
Police put the death toll in the violent clashes at 10, while Khan’s party claimed 40 of its workers were killed in firing by security personnel.
Thousands of Khan’s supporters were arrested following violence described by the powerful military as a “dark day” in the country’s history.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that those involved in attacks on military installations would be tried in military courts, while those accused of attacks on civilian targets would be tried under civilian laws.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday that the government is considering a possible ban on Khan’s PTI party following attacks by his supporters on military installations following the former prime minister’s arrest.
Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan. was part of.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI,
