- New leadership being considered to take party forward: Hasan.
- He says Gandapur, Bushra to explain what happened in Islamabad.
- Marwat rules out any quarrel between KP CM, former first lady.
Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Raoof Hasan has ruled out the possibility of Bushra Bibi, party founder Imran Khan’s wife, being forced by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to leave Islamabad’s D-Chowk in the wake of the government crackdown against party protesters.
“I don’t think it is possible to forcefully take someone along from that place [D-Chowk],” said Hasan said while responding to a question regarding the possibility of Gandapur forcing Bushra to abandon the protest site.
Speaking on Geo News‘ programme “Capital Talk”, the PTI leader said that the party, at the time, was carrying out a self-assessment regarding where they made mistakes and that new leadership was being considered to take the party forward.
When asked about whether Bushra and Gandapur were held accountable for returning from the protest without freeing Khan, as per their initial claims, Hasan said: “This is a serious matter, Bushra and Gandapur will themselves explain what happened and how it happened”.
The PTI leader’s remarks come as the former ruling party, post the Islamabad protest fiasco, faces challenges on various fronts.
Apart from being gripped with internal fissures over the alleged violation of Khan’s directions coupled with Salman Akram Raja and Hamid Raza’s resignation from key posts, the PTI also faces a potential ban in light of the resolution passed by the Balochistan Assembly on Thursday and a similar one submitted before the Punjab Assembly on Friday (today).
Furthermore, the party also risks losing its provincial government in KP as the Centre is mulling the imposing of a governor’s rule.
Espionage
Meanwhile, speaking on Geo News’ programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath”, PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat complained of espionage against the party’s protest in the federal capital.
“A short-circuit was orchestrated [….] There was no one with them with [necessary] technical expertise to repair it,” said Marwat while referring to an alleged power outage of the leaders’ container which was part of the party’s protest.
The PTI leader said that no one was assigned the duty of instructing workers about what they were supposed to do.
Expanding on the protest strategy, he pointed out that KP CM Gandapur was against marching towards D-Chowk.
“The KP CM was stressed out as he did not want to proceed beyond the Kulsoom Hospital limit. He was not in favour of marching towards D-Chowk beyond Chungi Number 26 [….] He even visited Bushra’s vehicle twice],” remarked Marwat.
The PTI, he added, had received the government’s offer to stage a demonstration at Sangjani and the party’s chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Barrister Saif visited Khan at Adiala Jail to inform him about the offer.
However, the lawmaker claimed that following the meeting, Barrister Gohar told him that the PTI founder was not willing to accept the Sangjani offer and so it was wrong to blame Bushra for being adamant about going to D-Chowk as the party’s initial decision was to head to D-Chowk.
Responding to a question about whether the former first lady was forced to leave the protest by Gandapur, Marwat responded in the negative and noted that he was not aware of any quarrel between the two.
