ISLAMABAD: The estranged lawmaker of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Ayesha Gulalai, has said that tables had been turned on Imran Niazi and claimed that he could not oust her from the party. She said that she had not left the party and would continue to remain a part of it as PTI was not the personal estate of Imran Khan.
Talking to journalists outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Gulalai asserted, “Imran Niazi doesn’t hold any right to expel anyone from the party”. She even urged the people not to attend PTI’s public meeting to be held in NA-120, Lahore on Friday.
She emphasised that the people should not go to jalsas of a characterless man and that Imran Niazi’s politics of deceit would not continue for long. Gulalai complained that Imran did not even visit the dengue patients in Peshawar as he feared that he might get infected with the virus. “PTI has become hostage to the feudal and rich, and there is no respect for the poor and young workers within the party,” she claimed.
She came hard on some television channels for not highlighting the issues of dengue patients admitted to the hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, accusing them of compromising their impartiality to support the PTI chairman.
Earlier, the ECP asked Gulalai to submit response in writing in the next hearing of a disqualification reference forwarded against her by the NA Speaker after the PTI Chairman Imran Khan sought her disqualification for violating the party line. Imran had sent a notice to Gulalai stating that she had defected from the party in terms of Article 63 A (1) of the Constitution.
Gulalai was summoned by the ECP and she appeared before the forum and sought time for filing of the response to the reference. She had announced earlier to leave the party and had hinted at taking a decision on her future political alignment. However, now she declared not to leave PTI and remain within it.
Meanwhile, Ayesha Gulalai met her counsel Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta at Islamabad High Court (IHC). To a question whether she intended to file a petition with IHC, Bhutta said that it was not the case. She came to him to discuss her case pending with ECP. Her counsel, Bhutta told The News that he signed power of attorney (wakalat-nama) on her behalf at ECP. He said that PTI verbally announced that Gulalai left the party but there was nothing as such in writing.