PkMAP to protest raid on party chief Mahmood Achakzai’s home

The Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) has announced countrywide protest demonstrations against the police raid on the residence of the party Chief and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate for the seat of the president Mahmood Khan Achakzai today at 3:00 in the afternoon, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.  

Addressing a hurriedly summoned press conference along with other party leaders soon after the raid on Achakzai’s home yesterday, PMAP Secretary General Abdul Rahim Khan Ziaratwal said that not only the party leaders and workers, but the lawyers, too, would protest police brutality throughout the country by boycotting the court proceedings.

He said there was no justification for the raid. “Police stormed our chief’s home without a magistrate,” he said, adding, “No doubt by raiding his home, the authorities want to take revenge on Achakzai for his speech which he had delivered on the floor of the National Assembly (NA) a couple of days ago and in which he had laid bare the facts regarding rigging in the general elections.”

Ziaratwal further said that the police arrested a guard of the PMAP chief.

He went on to say that history was witness to the fact that the party had always struggled for the rule of law and supremacy of the constitution. “We have never supported any dictator,” he said emphatically.

Ziaratwal said that not only that Jan Achakzai was minister in the Balochistan cabinet against the constitution, but his patrons too had no place in the constitution. “Mehmood Khan Achakzai is a candidate for the seat of president, and the reasons for raiding his home are in everybody’s knowledge,” he said, adding, “How unfortunate that on the very first day of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in office, the PMAP was punished for its unwavering support for democracy in the country.”

Ziaratwal said that not only that, businesses of Achakzai’s associates and the party’s office-bearers were also shut down after the raid. “A showroom and a petrol pump, situated at the Airport Road, were closed.”

PMAP leader, however, made it clear that the party could not be intimidated by such tactics and that it would not budge from its stance even by an inch.  

Ziaratwal said how astonishing it was that the state institutions acted against the PMAP chief only after his fiery speech in the NA. “There were reports that Achakzai and his children could be implicated in false cases of narcotics smuggling.”