PTI won’t fight with state institutions: Rauf

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has said the party is not going to fight with any state institution and there is no decision of contesting the upcoming elections with the narrative of civilian supremacy vs establishment.

The PTI Information Secretary, Rauf Hasan, when approached by The News, distanced the PTI from party lawyer Barrister Gohar Khan’s statement that PTI’s narrative for the elections would be civilian supremacy vs establishment. Barrister Khan said this in a Geo talkshow on Monday night.

PTI’s senior leader and former cabinet member of Imran Khan government Ali Muhammad Khan, when asked, endorsed Hasan’s view and said neither the PTI’s core committee nor its leadership at any level had taken any decision of adopting civilian supremacy vs establishment narrative.

He said the party will contest the elections on the basis of Imran Khan’s commitment to making Pakistan an Islamic welfare state in line with the golden principles of Riasat-e-Madina. Rauf Hasan said the PTI does not want to fight with any state institution. He said he has always been saying and believes neither they will fight with any institution nor we should do any such thing.

He said PTI believes in struggle while remaining within the constitutional limits for democracy, rule of law, constitutionalism and civil liberty. Rauf Hasan said he would talk to Barrister Gohar regarding the latter’s statement, which has raised many eyebrows even within the party.

The PTI is already seriously troubled by its post-April 2022 narrative against the military establishment, which led to the May 9 attacks. The attacks have made the political situation for the PTI really gloomy.

The PTI has been deserted by a large number of its leaders, including those who were very close to the party head. Chairman Imran Khan, Deputy Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and President Pervaiz Elahi are behind the bars.

Several other party leaders and a large number of workers are also in police or military custody facing criminal charges in connection with the May 9 attacks on military buildings, symbols, installations, etc, including GHQ, Corps Commander House, Lahore, known as Jinnah House, Mianwali airbase and many others.

Most of those who had left the party and many of those who are still with PTI now repent the post-April 2022 anti-establishment narrative of Imran Khan. They said the narrative created a situation where Imran and PTI had landed themselves in Imran Khan vs military establishment fight that led to its climax i.e. May 9, declared as a Black Day by the government and the military.

In such a situation, it is said adopting civilian supremacy vs establishment like narrative will lead the PTI to a new fight with the establishment. The PTI leadership is already trying hard to revive its lost contacts with the military establishment to overcome the negative fallouts of May 9 on the party and its leadership.

The PTI desperately wants a rapprochement with the military establishment to secure better political conditions for the party in the next elections.