ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Saturday attributed the party’s failure to secure the release of its jailed founder, Imran Khan, to “internal affairs” and organisational weaknesses.
“I believe that if our internal matters were in order, PTI’s founding chairman would have been out of jail. There are no laws and justice; the country’s system is also flawed,” he said while speaking to the media here.
Gandapur, who also served as PTI’s provincial president until early last year, remarked, “I am equally guilty of this failure. Why are we failing again and again despite such public support and popularity?”
He said either their intentions don’t match or divisions persist among the party leaders. “We are engaged in issues that don’t tally with our aim. We are indulging in foolishness and ignorance. Whatever the reason, the outcome is visible to all,” he noted. “We have made mistakes; Imran Khan is asking for access to a doctor, and we are unable to arrange it,” Gandapur regretted.
He said pressure is built not through words but through action. “It is created by your strength and what you can do. If dialogue and TikTok could make a difference, this situation would not have arisen. Today even a doctor is unavailable to him. I was never silent when I was the chief minister,” he claimed. The former chief minister said he respects everyone in the party but feels pain when his leader faces hardship. Therefore, he decided to speak out, even in anger, and urged others to bear with him. “How much pressure did we generate in the campaign for the founding chairman’s release? We are standing here today; we must reflect upon this. Whatever I am doing, I am doing for the party’s founding chairman,” he contended. Gandapur recalled that when he was merely a worker — neither a political committee member nor an office-bearer — he still held some of the country’s largest rallies in his constituency. “I challenge you, if my rally was not the biggest, I would have stayed silent,” he asserted.
His remarks come amid a surprise move by incumbent KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi to intensify the street movement and establish a force for Imran Khan’s release. Gandapur said when the call for an Islamabad sit-in was given, he arrived first and remained most active. “I have not slept more than twelve hours in the five days I have been here. Then I was ordered to leave. There is a reason our pressure has eased, and the founder is facing difficulties,” he said. Gandapur maintained that if demanding greater pressure is considered a sin, he would still do it to awaken the party leaders. “Problems are not being solved. It is not enough to sit on television and talk; change comes only through action,” he remarked.
