LAHORE -UNS: Chairman PTI Imran Khan on Saturday constituted a seven-member committee to hold talks with the PDM-led government.
It comes a day after he appealed the political stakeholders to hold “immediate talks” as the party had been seeing scores of its members parting their ways.
The committee includes senior vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Parvez Khattak, Asad Qaisar, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Aon Abbas Buppi, Murad Saeed, and Hammad Azhar. Some of the leaders he named are either in jail, hiding from arrests, or being speculated about leaving the party amid PTI’s mass exodus.
Earlier, talking to group of journalists, Mr Khan said “If I am disqualified, Shah Mehmood Qureshi will run the party”.
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He said he would unleash surprises in the coming days, adding that the time was about to change. “Young people will be allotted tickets for elections, and I know that the PTI will win polls,” he added.
“Hold a referendum and you will see the result yourself,” he said.
He went on to say that if he was arrested, PTI leaders including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Parvez Khattak, and others would run party affairs. “I am not at odds with the army,” he added.
Some of those who left the party were forced to do so, he said, while others showed their real faces.
Mr Khan said he could swear that he never asked his party activist to vandalise [national buildings], adding that how could he ask them to do so now even when he did not allow so after he survived an assassination attempt [in Wazirabad]. “If the PTI is popular with public, why will it adopt the policy of siege,” he asked.
He said President Arif Alvi would continue in line with the constitution. “I have summoned a meeting of my legal team to deliberate the release of detained party workers,” he added.
Taking to Twitter hours ago, he wrote, “While the country’s economy is crashing right before our eyes, all this fascist govt is thinking of, are more coercive and oppressive measures to crush PTI”.
On the other hand, the government ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the PTI, with information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb saying, “Talks could not be held with those who attacked the state”. “Mr Khan is not appealing for negotiations, he is, in fact, seeking an NRO,” he added.
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