ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday said that the party was not coming out on September 27 to break the gates of Adiala jail or to “capture” Islamabad but would peacefully seek justice.
Speaking to the media, Gohar said that it had been 320 days since “we have had any meeting with the jailed founder of PTI”, who had been handed down seven sentences, while 300 cases had been filed against him and he had remained in jail for three years. “Now it should be enough,” he said.
The party chairman underlined that in order to restore an atmosphere of trust, the party founder and chairman should be shifted to a hospital for treatment. “We have never hindered Pakistan’s important diplomatic achievements,” he maintained, and cited examples in this connection. “It is our compulsion to protest, but if there is a dialogue, then we are ready. The founder has also never refused to talk,” he contended.
Gohar hailed the decision of the Islamabad High Court regarding the PTI founder and emphasized that the court’s orders should be implemented. “You yourself say that the system needs to be reset; if you are not ready for it, then the people themselves will reset it,” he argued.
He said improvement lay in ending the tension, adding that the entire opposition was with the PTI over the treatment of its founder. He said the party would also ask all political parties to join the protest. The party chairman said that “we will move together on public issues outside the assembly as well”.
He clarified that the PTI’s position on the issues concerning Azad Kashmir was clear, saying public demands should be discussed, but the party did not support an anti-state or anti-Pakistan narrative. Gohar said there had been no signal from the government regarding talks so far. “We believe that there should be discussions on issues, political dialogue is necessary. We have come to this approach because our words are not being listened to,” he said.
