• CM once again narrates his ordeal to placate supporters, blames social media for creating confusion
• Opposition lawmaker says CM playing ‘double game’; brawl also witnessed on KP Assembly floor

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Tuesday blamed propaganda on social media for the prevalent confusion among his colleagues and party supporters regarding his role in the protest.

The KP CM, who had led a caravan of protesters from Peshawar to Islamabad to stage a protest at D-Chowk, has come under fire on social and mainstream media, with many — including members of his own party — alleging that he may be playing a ‘double game’.

This was a departure from the party’s usual stance, which considers social media a key weapon in its arsenal. Many PTI leaders — including party founder Imran Khan — have openly expressed their disillusionment with mainstream media outlets due to censorship, expressing a preference for the more ‘democratic’ social media, where the party narrative doesn’t face as many curbs.

The allegations and insinuations took hold after CM Gandapur disappeared from the protest under mysterious circumstances on Saturday, before surfacing in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to narrate his ‘ordeal’ the next night.

This was the second time he had ‘gone incommunicado’ during a PTI protest in the capital.

It was against this backdrop that the chief minister, who rarely attends assembly sessions, came to the house for a second time in three days to explain his stance, trying to placate PTI supporters who doubted his intention.

“The opposition parties, some journalists and hypocrites have created confusion about my role in the protest,” the chief minister said on the floor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, blaming elements on social media for spreading confusion.

Speaking during the session, CM Gandapur recalled his travails, saying that when his convoy of 300 vehicles reached Jinnah Avenue, tear gas shelling against local PTI activists was already underway.

“I observed that army personnel, Rangers and Islamabad’s police were on high alert while the thousands of PTI activists were also charged,” the chief minister said, adding a clash among the forces and workers was possible.

In order to prevent any untoward incident, he said, he decided to go to the KP House to formulate the next line of act­ion, as per Mr Khan’s instructions.

However, a large number of police and Rangers personnel, led by the Islamabad police chief ‘attacked KP House’, forcing him to hide for four hours, he claimed, adding that he managed to escape the police cordon and headed towards Monal — a now-defunct eatery in the Margalla Hills — on foot.

According to CM Gandapur, one of the staff members of KP House had arranged a car for him, which picked him up near the former site of the restaurant and headed to KP, travelling through 12 districts, including Battagram, Torghar, Shangla, Swat, Mardan, Charsadda, and finally reaching Peshawar.

In his speech, he warned the federal government to transfer the Islamabad police chief forthwith for damaging the property of the provincial government (KP House), threatening that the PTI would again march on Islamabad in case the IGP remained on his post.

However, opposition lawmaker Ahmad Karim Kundi rejected the explanations of the provincial chief executive, saying that a “double game will not work, no one will buy it neither the opposition members nor the PTI workers”.

“I feel ashamed listening to the kind of explanation given by the chief executive of this province,” he said.

Meanwhile, the house also witnessed pandemonium as supporters of two lawmakers engaged in a brawl.

According to Geo News, as opposition members were not given a chance to speak, there was a bitter exchange which culminated in a fistfight. Opposition lawmakers also staged a walkout from the house to protest the speaker’s refusal to give them the floor of the house.

The chair later adjourned the session till Monday.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024