After Lahore tour, KP CM Afridi to take PTI campaign to Karachi

Days after concluding a three-day visit to Lahore to launch Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) street movement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Thursday that he would visit Karachi on January 9.

“Friday, January 9! Karachi, Sindh, are you ready?” Afridi said in a post on social media platform X. He added that he would be coming to Karachi “bearing Imran Khan’s message” and would meet “all friends of the party”.

Afridi had earlier said that Karachi would be his next destination as part of efforts to mobilise PTI supporters nationwide.

During his Lahore visit, the KP chief minister was unable to address supporters at Liberty Chowk after police blocked access roads by setting up pickets. He also addressed PTI lawmakers at the Punjab Assembly, where altercations were reported between members of his entourage and security officials, alongside heated exchanges involving journalists.

Afridi was barred from visiting the cantonment area and Lahore’s food street, while detentions of party supporters were also reported.

He later wrote to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, criticising what he described as “extraordinary and excessive security measures”, calling them “a message of intimidation rather than cooperation”.

Separately, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan said law enforcement agencies would investigate the KP CM’s assembly visit based on CCTV footage and initial inquiry reports.