Geo and I never been part of any anti-Imran conspiracy: Sethi

Senior journalist Najam Sethi said he and Geo News had never been part of any conspiracy against Imran Khan.
He said Imran on Saturday had again repeated his allegations of rigging against former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice (r) Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.
The former chief justice had already filed a defamation case against Imran while Justice (r) Ramday was also thinking about a similar action, he added.
Sethi said he was really pleased that Imran had talked about proving his charges before the court. Parties (people) should move the courts in case of any allegation, which was the right forum to decide such matters, he noted.
Expressing his views in Geo News programme 'Aapis ki Baat', he said Imran, who repeated the conspiracy charges again and again, should prove the matter and agree on including the word "conspiracy" in the judicial commission's terms of reference (ToR) so as to resolve the matter.
Sethi said Imran's statement pleased him for a personal reason, because he (Sethi) too had filed a case over unfounded rigging charges but the PTI chief did not appear before the court till to date.
Several notices were also published but Imran did not appear in person, but as the court was about to give an ex parte verdict, his counsel argued that they had no information about the issue, Sethi said.
They had all the knowledge about the world except the four, five or even more notices, he remarked.
Expressing his pleasure over Imran's new stance, Sethi said he too hoped that Imran would prove in the court that how many "punctures" he (Sethi) had caused and what was the relevant proof.
Sethi said Imran, who again used the word "conspiracy", had been saying that a well-planned conspiracy was executed in general elections in which the former chief justice, Justice (r) Ramday, Nawaz Sharif, Najam Sethi, election commissioners and ROs (returning officers) were involved. However, the PTI backtracked from the stance as the government had been insisting on proving the conspiracy before the judicial commission, he added.
According to Sethi, the judicial commission issue remained unresolved as the PTI is not ready to prove the conspiracy charges, while the government says they should as they have levelled the allegation.
Talking about the alleged role of the interim government in rigging, he said Imran also named the then Punjab chief secretary and additional chief secretary who had previously been declared as most honest official of the country. The interim government had nothing to do with printing the ballot papers," he noted.
Sethi said a legal notice would soon be sent to PTI leader Shireen Mazari over accusing him of being a tax defaulter. He topped the list of journalists by paying the largest amount as tax which could be verified from the FBR, he added.
He never adopted benami transactions like the one in Bani Gala, he remarked.
According to Sethi, Imran's rigging allegations in NA-122 have been proven false by the commission report, as only 1,395 votes out of a total of 183,000 were rejected. Imran knows the tribunal's verdict would be against him and he is trying to create an environment to pressurise everyone - including judges and commission - by using media under a planned strategy. The National speaker is winner even if the claim about colour and additional ballot papers stands ground. Hence, the case has been lost.
He said claiming that the polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were transparent without an iota of doubt was wrong, as around 400 petitions had also been filed there.
The PTI was making a noise over not accepting the party members' resignations in National Assembly but not happy with their acceptance in Sindh, he added.
According to Sethi, the entire politics of PTI was based upon the third umpire. They will again launch the protest, if the third umpire agrees at any stage.