The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Government (KP) and Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) officials dismissed on Thursday the reports that the founder of PTI, Imran Khan, had assigned to Prime Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and the SAIF Government spokesman for the task of negotiating with the establishment.
Denial occurs in the midst of generalized speculation on social and main networks, claiming that Khan had instructed KP’s leadership to “participate again” with the establishment during a recent meeting in the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi.
Barríster Saif, responding to the reports, declared: “No one was assigned a new task to celebrate the negotiation with the establishment by the founder of PTI.”
He clarified that the April 2 meeting between Khan and Gandapur revolved around governance, terrorism and regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan. Saif added that Khan issued instructions to the main minister of KP related to administrative matters.
According to Saif, Khan reiterated his position of not participating in any conversation for personal benefit. “I would not talk to anyone to obtain personal profits, including obtaining prison release,” he said, citing the former prime minister.
The meeting marked the first interaction between Khan and Gandapur in almost a month and a half, lasting more than two hours. According to reports, discussions also mentioned institutional confrontations and criticisms aimed at the leadership of the party on social networks.
Separately, the president of the PTI, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, had previously refuted the claims of any agreement with the establishment. He said that although the contact had been restored, “the final negotiations had not even begun,” and described the speculation of an agreement as “without foundation” and disconnected from the terrestrial realities.
Echoing the party line, PTI’s secretary of information, Sheikh Waqas Akram, also rejected the reports, calling them “false claims” designed to deceive the public.
“No one went to convince PTI to negotiate,” he told a private news channel, insisting that Khan had not commissioned anyone to start conversations.
Akram criticized efforts to twist the facts for political advantage and said the meeting focused solely on the functioning of the KP government and internal parties issues. “Gandapur will present Khan’s directives before the political committee of the party,” he added.
