Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will lead the party in case of his disqualification by a court, a private TV channel reported.
“If I am disqualified, Shah Mahmood Qureshi will run the party,” Khan said Saturday in a meeting with journalists and lawyers at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore. On a question, Imran Khan praised his party’s dynamic young leader Murad Saeed as the ‘future leader’. He said that among the people quitting PTI, some are compelled to do so while others have been ‘exposed’.
Commenting on the mass departure of leaders from his party over the May 9 vandalism, the PTI chief put up a brave face saying the situation is going to change soon. “I will give a big surprise in the coming days,” he added. Khan said some party leaders were leaving the party under compulsion while some had been exposed.
Calling the youth a major asset of his party, Khan said the party ticket was their right and added that PTI will win the next general elections despite desertions of the party leaders. He also called for holding a referendum to gauge the popularity of his party among the masses.
Amid rumours about the PTI-backed president’s resignation, Khan said Arif Alvi would continue working according to the constitution. The PTI chief claimed that a conspiracy had been hatched to “arrest, disqualify, and even assassinate him”.
Responding to allegations that he directed his party workers to attack the military installations, the PTI chief rejected the claims saying he never issued instructions for violence and vandalism.
He also maintained that he had no quarrel with the military saying: “There is no fight with the army, this army is mine.” The former PM hit out at the coalition government for “destroying” the country’s economy and reiterated that there is no solution to the prevailing crisis except elections. Meanwhile, Imran Khan lashed out at the incumbent “fascist government”, saying it only thinking about “more coercive and oppressive measures to crush PTI” while the country’s economy is “crashing right before our eyes”.
“Dollar selling at Rs310 in the open market and there’s record backbreaking inflation in the country right now. While our debt is accumulating at the fastest rate ever, the economy is shrinking. “All our annual tax revenue collections do not even cover the interest that we have to pay on our loans. And of course, to the PDM leadership, this historic devaluation of the rupee doesn’t matter because all their ill-gotten wealth is stashed abroad in dollars. “It will be the people of Pakistan who will experience inflation and poverty while PDM leaders will be beneficiaries of this fall in rupee,” he tweeted.
Separately, Imran Khan filed a plea with Lahore’s anti-terrorism court, requesting the revocation of search warrants for his Zaman Park residence issued on May 18. In the plea, Imran Khan named the state, commissioner of Lahore, DIG operations Lahore, SSP operations Lahore, and others as respondents. He alleged that the law enforcement officials acquired the search warrants with a malicious intent. “It is most respectfully prayed that the search warrant relating to petitioner’s house situated at Zaman Park, Lahore may kindly be set-aside /cancelled/recalled being illegal, unlawful, inappropriate which lacks the requisite legal parameters for a valid warrant in the interest of justice and fair play,” he said in his plea, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.
Imran further urged the court to take strict action against the respondents and deal with them severely for “their unlawful and illegal misuse of authority under the pretext of the search warrant”. Meanwhile, the PTI has formed a negotiation committee for talks with the government after the approval of party chairman Imran Khan. The party said the seven-member team will decide the plan of action with the government regarding the elections. The committee comprises party vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Asad Qaiser, Hammad Azhar, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Murad Saeed and Aon Abbas Buppi.
