RAWALPINDI: A vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Sohail Afridi’s convoy ran over a PTI worker’s foot on Thursday injuring him severely, according to eyewitnesses.
The incident took place at Dahgal checkpoint near Adiala Jail, where Sohail Afridi was present with his official protocol.
According to eyewitnesses, Salar Khan, who was injured by the convoy, was neither given immediate medical assistance nor the Chief Minister stopped to console him.
The injured Salar Khan alleged that he was discharging his duty for the party when the Chief Minister’s convoy suddenly sped up and just ran over his foot.
The people on the site gathered around him and took him to a nearby hospital for medical care. There has been no official response from the Chief Minister’s Office on the incident yet.
Earlier Sohail Afridi had arrived at the Adiala Jail for a meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan. He was seen waiting in a private office near Adiala Jail. However till the filing of this report, he had not been allowed to meet Imran Khan.
Heavy contingents of Police have been deployed in the area while the roads around Dahgal checkpoint are partially blocked.
This is Sohail Afridi’s first visit as Chief Minister to Rawalpindi and near Adiala Jail.
KP CM Calls Quaid-e-Azam ‘Founder of PTI’
KP CM faced an embarrassing situation when he failed to give a response to a journalist question regarding replacing Quaid-e-Azam’s picture and the national flag with that of PTI’s party flag and symbols.
Responding to the query, Sohail Afridi’s tongue slipped as he said, “Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is the founder of PTI.” Realizing his mistake, the CM immediately corrected himself, saying, “Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is the founder of Pakistan.”
However, the Chief Minister avoided giving a direct answer when asked whether he had actually removed Quaid-e-Azam’s portrait and the national flag from his office. Instead, he remarked, “Quaid-e-Azam is visible to them only on currency notes, not in offices.”
Sohail Afridi defended himself by saying that all panaflex banners displayed on August 14 included both the national flag and Quaid-e-Azam’s image. “For us, Pakistan comes first,” he asserted.
The statement, however, sparked criticism online, with users accusing the chief minister of disrespecting national symbols and showing party bias within official premises.
