Shehbaz, Gandapur forge rare bonhomie in first meeting

ISLAMABAD: In a major political development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur Wednesday met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and was satisfied with his first engagement with the premier, terming it as positive.

Talking to newsmen flanked by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and other PMLN leaders following a meeting with the premier, CM Gandapur said that during the meeting, he stressed on the need to hold political dialogue with PTI’s-incarcerated founder Imran Khan who has been behind bars since August last year in different cases, ranging from corruption to terrorism. “I have asked the prime minister to politically engage with Imran Khan. Political engagement will lead to a political solution,” he added.

Gandapur said PM Shehbaz had also assured him that he would be allowed to meet the party founder in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail where the authorities have beefed up security measures and barred ex-premier Imran from holding meetings owing to “threat alert”. Gandapur said he told the premier that he had to hold a meeting with the party founder to discuss the upcoming Senate polls.

Gandapur said he held a discussion with the prime minister to resolve issues of people and Shehbaz assured him that all dues of the province would be cleared.

The meeting between the two chief executives belonging to rival political parties is seen as an important development in bringing down the political temperature in the country as the major political parties are at loggerheads.

Meanwhile, the PM House Media Wing in a statement said that Shehbaz welcomed Gandapur telling him that the four provinces are units of the federation and the country would progress if all move ahead together. The PM assured Gandapur that all the legitimate demands of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province would be fulfilled. “We will have to find out solutions to issues while sitting together,” he said. He said the federal government also wanted to work with the provinces in harmony and strengthen relations with them.

Gandapur also expressed the resolve that the provincial government wanted to move forward with the Centre with good intentions and play a positive role. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of State and Frontier Regions Amir Muqam and senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, during an informal interaction with journalists in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder chairman Imran Khan slammed the general election 2024 and predicted a Sri Lanka-like situation in the country as the nation’s hopes were shattered by “stealing the mandate”. “All of my predictions proved to be true,” the former prime minister said and reiterated that he was not engaging in any talks with the current rulers to reach a deal.

“Each and everything is based on lies [...] like the election was a lie [...] the security threat is also a lie,” the politician said, adding that the PTI was deliberately kept away from the 2024 polls. Imran said the voters took revenge on the polling day but the “change via vote was not accepted”. He added the PTI would continue its peaceful protests against the “rigging” besides approaching the Supreme Court. He also foresaw ‘horse-trading’ in the forthcoming Senate elections, scheduled on April 2. The former PM alleged that he was not being allowed to meet his lawyers. Imran commented that the nation would take to the streets after a new wave of inflation.

In another development on Wednesday, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan also arrived at the Adiala Jail to meet the party founder. After meeting Imran Khan during the hearing of the £190 million UK National Crime Agency scandal, Barrister Gohar told journalists outside the jail that they submitted a formal request for the meeting as a ban was in place on meetings with inmates at the jail. He said the party would take a final decision on candidates for the upcoming polls in the Senate, which he also discussed with the PTI founder in which some of the names have been finalised.

Criticising the incumbent government, Gohar said that some individuals from the former caretaker government have been inducted into the federal cabinet. The PTI chairman said that they believed in dialogue but his party lawmakers were not being given an opportunity to speak on the floor of parliament. He said the incumbent government has no moral grounds to rule the country.

Moreover, PTI central leaders Omar Ayub Khan, Sher Afzal Marwat, and Shaukat Basra, along with lawyers staged a protest demonstration outside the Islamabad High Court and marched towards the Parliament House. However, the protesting PTI leaders were stopped from entering the Parliament House. Later, only the PTI lawmakers were permitted to enter the Parliament building.