Minister for Climate Change and PPP leader Sherry Rehman has expressed concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in Swat.

“We have to defend our country’s land and would make arrangements to prevent such incidents,” the minister said speaking exclusively on Aaj News programme Faisla Aap Ka with host Asma Shirazi.

Rehman strongly condemned the Swat incident, saying that the matter had been raised in the federal cabinet’s meeting. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was responsible for maintaining a law and order situation that has witnessed a surge in attacks in the recent past, she added.

The minister’s remarks came a day after armed men opened fire on a school van in Swat’s Charbagh area that killed a driver while injuring a child.

The attack sparked protests in the region and led up to 2,000 girls and boys to walk out of classes in protest.

Hundreds of protesters, who chanted slogans demanding peace in the region, said the law and order situation in Swat had been deteriorating for the past three months.

Meanwhile, the family members of the school vehicle driver, who was shot dead in the attack, called off their sit-in after successful negotiations with the administration.

They had been protesting with the body on the Kalam-Mingora Road for the past two days.

Expressing concerns over the temporary peace agreement in Swat, the minister said that those who desired to come into the mainstream should fulfill the conditions of the agreement.

“Pakistanis have sacrificed a lot. Over 80,000 people have become victims of terrorism,” she said adding that PPP had never compromised over terrorism.

Taking a jibe at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan, Rehman said that the PTI chief was misleading the nation towards fascism.

“People are affected and he [Imran Khan] is taking ‘Nazi oaths’ from the people to make them march in Islamabad,” the minister said and added that the PTI chief knew that people didn’t want to be a part of their movement, so they were taking oath from people.

Replying to a question regarding the investigation of Prime Minister House audio leaks, she said that the joint investigation team would probe the matter thoroughly and every aspect of the issue would be probed.

She said that the recent audio leaks of the former prime minister Imran Khan had exposed his supposed narrative and double standards to the entire nation.

Rehman said Imran Khan could not become a leader like Shaheed Benazir Bhutto by talking about tendering arrests as he fought his personal battle by chanting the slogan of real freedom.

The minister said that the country was being pushed into the darkness on the issue of cipher, adding that President Arif Alvi had also admitted that there was no foreign conspiracy against the PTI-led government.

Speaking about recent catastrophic floods, she said that Pakistan went through the worst climate event of the century. “Such a tragedy has never been seen since 1971,” Rehman added.

The minister spoke about the need for funds in a situation where the economy has sustained a huge exogenous shock.

She continued to say that the government has to work on the rehabilitation of the flood affectees and their return to their areas. “Due to lack of resources it will take four to five years for the restoration process,” she added.