1. A Press Conference Like No Other
When PTI Secretary General, Salman Akram Raja spoke, he began with gratitude, but quickly switched gears. This wasn’t a man defending himself; this was a man reminding the nation of its conscience.
He talked about the political transition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — a transition that, according to him, was lawful and democratic — and yet, some unseen hands were working hard to derail it. His voice was calm, but his sarcasm was sharper than a scalpel. “We’re not here to give clarifications,” he said. “We’re here to say what Imran Khan has been saying for 30 years — and what this country keeps refusing to hear.”
2. Remembering the Real Heroes
Before diving into politics, Raja paused to remember a mother — the mother of Major Adnan, a martyr who recently laid down his life. The nation, he reminded, owes its existence to such sons and such mothers.
But his real point cut deeper: we glorify our martyrs only until the next news cycle.
In a voice trembling with restrained anger, he said that every drop of Pakistani blood — soldier, police officer, or civilian — is sacred. Anyone suggesting that PTI treats one life as more valuable than another, he called that “a gross lie — and frankly, an insult to Pakistan itself.”
3. The Root of the Rot
Then came the part that made Pakistani establishment fidget in their chairs. Raja traced terrorism not to PTI, but to decades of flawed national policies.
“Forty years,” he said, “no — seventy-eight years of mismanagement, injustice, and playing proxy wars.”
The sarcastic punchline: “We turned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into a battlefield for other people’s wars, and now we’re shocked it’s bleeding.”
He reminded that Imran Khan had always warned: you can’t bomb your way to peace. The war on terror was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. And the result? More graves, less trust.
4. The Afghan Puzzle
When he mentioned Afghanistan, it wasn’t nostalgia — it was irony. Raja reminded everyone that just three years ago, before Imran’s unlawful regime change, Pakistan’s ties with the Afghan government were at their best, and India was sulking in silence. Now, the tables have turned, and both our eastern and western borders simmer with tension.
He asked the kind of question that keeps generals awake at night: “What changed in the last three years that brought us here?”
He didn’t need to name names — everyone knew the answer.
Raja pointed out that China is now quietly building a new trade corridor through the Wakhan Corridor — a route that connects it directly with Afghanistan and Central Asia. The question, now, needs to be asked: Is China losing patience with Pakistan and the once-celebrated CPEC dream?
If our closest ally is exploring alternate routes, maybe it’s time to stop pretending all is well. Why can’t we, instead of sulking or picking fights with Kabul, work together to strengthen regional trade and rebuild trust? Why is asking such obvious, common-sense questions treated like a crime in this country?
5. The Allegations and the Truth
Next, he tackled the elephant in the room — accusations that PTI harbored terrorists. His tone turned surgical.
He reminded the audience that during Imran Khan’s government, terrorism was at a record low.
So, who suddenly discovered “terrorists in PTI’s backyard”? Raja pointed to the absurdity: “If PTI supposedly resettled militants in 2021, how come even the post Imran government later negotiated with the same groups?”
He quoted Rana Sanaullah’s old tweet calling for talks with the TTP — the very thing PTI was now being blamed for. The irony, he said, “was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.”
6. The Double Standards
Raja accused the government of rewriting history faster than school textbooks. He asked: “One day you say the militants are Afghan refugees. The next day you say we brought them in. Decide already — who’s your villain this week?”
His sarcasm was relentless.
If opposing mindless military operations that kill innocents is treason, he said, “then maybe sanity itself has become anti-state.”
He compared Pakistan’s situation to Northern Ireland — where decades of violence ended not with bullets, but with dialogue. “Every war,” he reminded, “eventually ends at a table. Why not start there?”
7. The Plea for Sense
With rising emotion, Raja urged the state to take “a breath of sanity.” He said Pakistan needs reconciliation, not repression. “Stop calling patriots traitors,” he pleaded.
PTI, he said, is not running from the law — it’s standing in the people’s court.
Every house raid, every broken wall, every beating of a child or mother — he called them symptoms of a government afraid of its own people.
His sarcasm returned: “You can silence the press, twist the courts, and jail the leaders — but good luck erasing yourself from the nation’s heart.”
8. The Warning and the Hope
He ended with a warning wrapped in compassion:
“When you crush a nation’s voice, you don’t get loyalty — you get rage.”
Then, almost prophetically, he said: “A fearful nation doesn’t stay fearful. It explodes.”
Finally, he turned toward unity: “We are loyal to Pakistan — to its army, its people, its constitution. We are not enemies of the state. We are the ones trying to keep it whole.”
His last plea was simple: “Let democracy breathe before it suffocates completely.”
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