Summary Was there to encourage the students but the students encouraged me instead, says PTI chairman.
PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday clarified that he had to postpone his visit to APS previously scheduled on January 12 as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif was to visit the school adding that he was grieved that he was unable to pay the visit on the day decided.
Addressing the press conference at Chief Minister Secretariat he said he was there to encourage the students but the students encouraged him instead.
I must add again that the children really boosted my morale today. @ImranKhanPTI #IKpressCon pic.twitter.com/XO1Rlbloah
— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 14, 2015
“I salute the brave students; morale of the students is high and we are a brave nation,” he said.
Referring to the protest outside the school he said an impression was given that there was hue and cry outside the school. He further said he respects that parents who protested as he understands their anguish adding that he would do everything in his capacity to satisfy the bereaved parents.
He said a mother has invited him to visit her place and he will.
We will never let the situation hamper education, he added.
Education is our way forward, the entire country s political leadership stands with the children of Pakistan. @ImranKhanPTI #IKpressCon
— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 14, 2015
Khan said that Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq won such an election that neither stands on moral grounds nor means anything.
He said that he respects the parents and their feelings who demonstrated a protest outside the Army Public School (APS). He said that the students’ morale is high and Pakistani people constitute a brave nation. PTI chairman said that his party stood side by side with the government after the brutal Peshawar attack. If children do not go to the schools out of fear of acts of terror then terrorists would succeed in their purpose.
While talking about the matter of judicial commission, he said that the kind of judicial commission Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is trying to establish is equivalent to no judicial commission at all. As many as 128 polling stations lack forms 14 and 15, he added. Khan said that the rigging done in the constituencies of Hamid Khan and PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen have been exposed.
While talking about the protest on his arrival at the APS, he said that it was uncalled for and unnecessary. A sense of disorderliness outside the school was given out to the public which is sad, he added. He said that he would go to the homes of the martyrs to meet their parents in person. He could not understand the purpose of protest in response to his visit which meant to boost morale of the students and nothing else.
Khan said that it is impossible to provide security to as many as 65,000 schools in the province. Khan said that the burden to look after Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has been put on the shoulders of the provincial government.
All the parties of the countries are admitting that rigging was done in the General elections 2013 but nobody is demanding the government to investigate the matter.
While answering a question he said that a couple of the protesters outside the school passed political comments after he asked them how he could help them.
