ISLAMABAD:
The embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claims to have finally found the missing key and opened the door for an audience with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Syed Asim Munir, a much-desired development that the founder of the party, Imran Khan had long been trying to resurrect his flagging political fortunes, at least two confidants of the jailed former prime minister confirmed on Thursday, while the government denied any such development.
Amid frequent rebukes from the government that the PTI was free to hold talks with powerful stakeholders if it could, the constant knocking on the PTI’s door was finally answered when PTI president Barrister Gohar and Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, recently met the army chief in Peshawar and poured out their hearts before him.
To further cement the foundation for talks, the jailed PTI founding president not only welcomed direct contact with the army chief but declared it essential to achieving political stability in the country, which is grappling with political challenges. and economical for a long time.
However, the government side was quick to deny the meeting, with Senator Irfan Siddiqui saying that the meeting referred to was called specifically to discuss the security situation. When specifically asked to confirm whether the COAS had a separate meeting with the PTI leaders after the security meeting, the senator said “No”, adding “There is no such exclusive meeting.”
Commenting on the security-related meeting, Senator Siddiqui said, “I can state with full authority that during this meeting, Advocate Ali Gohar and the AAG [Ali Amin Gandapur] tried to introduce political discussions and demands. However, they were explicitly told that this meeting was strictly about security and had nothing to do with politics.”
Senator Siddiqui, who is also spokesperson for the government’s negotiation committee currently holding talks with the PTI in Parliament, said the PTI leaders were told in the security-related meeting that they should discuss political issues at the forum. appropriate if they so desired, but “not here.” “I support this statement with full authority and anyone is free to verify or refute it from any source they choose,” he concluded.
The claim that PTI leaders met the army chief came at a time when the PML-N-led ruling coalition is busy holding talks with the opposition PTI to resolve thorny issues between the two sides. Specifically, Khan and Gohar have revealed the details about the PTI-COAS meeting just before the third round of talks between the government and the opposition committees where the PTI finally submitted its letter of demands to the other party.
Details about the PTI leaders’ direct meeting with the COAS emerged after lawyer Gohar confirmed to the media outside Adiala jail in the garrison town that he, along with the KP chief minister, He met with the military chief the other day, saying he was revealing the details now with the permission and following instructions from the party supremo.
In fact, the current PTI chief said that Khan himself told journalists covering the trial proceedings that his party president had a crucial meeting with someone somewhere the other day, the day the army chief visited the provincial capital regarding security-related issues. .
Sharing details about the meeting, Barrister Gohar said that he met Khan inside the jail where Khan revealed to reporters about the first direct meeting of his party functionaries with the army chief, saying that he himself reveals details about any thing only when he receives explicit instructions from Khan. .
“The founding president of PTI welcomed this meeting and said that it is very important for the stability of the country,” Gohar quoted Khan during their early morning meeting on Thursday. Lawyer Gohar credited Khan for saying that his party’s doors were always open for negotiations but others had locked them, saying that if talks finally started, then the same will be better for stability.
He reiterated the PTI’s demands: establish a judicial commission to investigate the events of May 9 and November 26; and free political prisoners, including Imran Khan. “Ali Amin Gandapur and I met the army chief,” Gohar said, adding that the meeting took place in Peshawar, where “we have raised our entire issue before the army chief.”
Gohar termed the start of talks with the army chief as a positive development, the reports added, saying that all demands were presented to him. The development of talks between the government and the PTI has agitated the political scene to the point that everything else has taken a backseat for now.
However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar maintained his arduous record of not sharing anything about key developments. When asked for an account, the government spokesperson did not share anything about the PTI-COAS meeting until the filing of the story.
