ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Monday announced that his party would not take part in the fourth meeting with the government committee for talks, scheduled to be held on January 28 (toady) in the federal capital.
“We will not sit in tomorrow’s meeting with the government, the NA speaker’s secretary has also been informed,” he said while talking to the media after a meeting with a delegation of the Anchors Association of Pakistan. He clarified that the PTI had given the government seven days for formation of judicial commissions to investigate May 9 and November 26 incidents. However, the government failed to meet the demand and, therefore, his party decided to withdraw from the dialogue process.
The PTI chairman, along with former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, supported the journalists protest against controversial PECA Act. He assured the delegation that his party did not support the controversial bill and in this regard, it would stand with journalists at every forum. He claimed that there were many flaws in the controversial PECA bill, brought by the government, which also violated fundamental rights.
Anchors Association National Coordinator Amir Abbas said the government had assured them that the concerns of journalists would be heard in the Senate’s interior committee, but despite that, the committee forcibly passed the law.
He said the government behaviour showed that it did not want to consult journalists at any level because they would fail to defend the controversial law.
Talking to the media, Gohar said that efforts were being made to pick up whoever they want under the guise of fake news. He noted that the bill was passed in the assembly in a few minutes.
The PTI chairman said the media was the fourth pillar of the state; the government was passing these laws in a haste. He said “you are passing these laws in a hurry; you are putting the public and citizens in a new torment. If this bill is passed, it will be challenged in the courts.”
Speaking on the occasion, Asad Qaiser said the PECA Act was passed by the National Assembly. “We condemn it; it was started by Maryam Nawaz from Punjab; the passage of such a law was akin to imposing martial law plus.
“All these laws are being made to suppress journalism, the result of these laws is to harm the PTI; they want to turn all TV channels into PTV. The country does not run like this; there is no law and order in the country; the attempt to make the country a banana republic is ongoing; we stand with the media,” he added.
Separately, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur met PTI founder chairman Imran Khan at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, and discussed with him party affairs and development projects in the province.
It was his first meeting after his removal as the PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa president. The meeting lasted for about an hour and a half during which party affairs, political matters and development projects in KP were discussed. Sources said a rally in Peshawar on February 8 also came under discussion during the meeting.