Dawn
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16:57 Apr 19, 2026
MARDAN: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said on Sunday that he had conveyed a message to incarcerated PTI founder, Imran Khan, stating that he was ready to “be in Islamabad” — ostensibly to hold a power show in the federal capital. “I conveyed to him that I am ready, the nation is ready, Pakistanis are ready … If you give us the go-ahead, we will be in Islamabad the next day,” he told a charged crowd at a public gathering in Mardan. He said Imran had instructed to consult Tehreek Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan leaders Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and Mehmood Khan Achakzai as well, and he would be mindful of that. Turning his guns on the incumbent federal government, he said they had been unable to make Imran bow under the pressure of “baseless and fabricated cases”, filed against him and his spouse, Bushra Bibi. He accused the government of committing “cruelty and injustice” against Imran, his sisters and Bushra Bibi. Afridi decried that Imran and Bushra Bibi were being deprived of the right to get medi...