MUZAFFARABAD: Condemning the “unrelenting vindictive actions” against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership and workers in Pakistan, party’s Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter on Monday warned the federal government of a ‘serious backlash’.

“The leaders and workers of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir chapter of PTI express unflinching solidarity with their chairman Imran Khan and warn of a serious reaction to the incumbent regime in Islamabad in the event of his [Mr Khan’s] arrest under flimsy charges,” said a unanimously adopted resolution at the joint meeting of PTI’s governing body, parliamentary party and ticket holders in Azad Kashmir.

The meeting was chaired by AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas who also happens to be PTI’s regional president.

“Imran Khan is the pride of Pakistan and a series of vindictive measures against him prove the fact that the constituents of the incumbent regime in Islamabad are extremely afraid of the downfall of their politics in his presence,” the resolution added.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Ilyas maintained that the PTI had turned out to be the most popular political party in the country under the indomitable leadership of Mr Khan, something which had compelled his “edgy and insecure opponents” to implicate him in false charges.

“But they will have to cut a sorry figure,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022