PTI MPs, ticket holders discuss party action plan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators Monday discussed ways and means to be more effective and give tough time to the government in parliament and provincial legislatures, as per directions, given by the party founder Imran Khan.

A meeting of PTI’s elected representatives and the party ticket-holders was held here to discuss different plans of action to make the party more organised and a formidable political force. The participants expressed their resolve to double the efforts to ensure Imran Khan’s release from jail at the earliest.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Opposition Leader in Senate Shibli Faraz said the PTI leaders gathered from across the country, which was the biggest-ever meeting after elections, wherein various issues came under discussion. Among others, PTI Secretary General and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Information Secretary Raoof Hasan were also present. Shibli said the PTI elected representatives in the NA and provincial assemblies and the Senate as well as the party ticketholders, who were defeated through form 47, were also present.

He said the PTI would continue its legal, constitutional and political struggle within the ambit and purview of the law. “We discussed issues pertaining to the party organisation to make it more effective political force, and the unlawful detention of the PTI founding chairman and other party leaders, especially woman activists, who have been in jails for the last nine months,” he noted.

He said the Supreme Court (SC) had given a historic decision regarding the PTI reserved seats, as these seats were unjustly and unlawfully distributed among other political parties. He asserted that the top court’s decision even put a question mark on the already tainted elections of president, PM and chief ministers. He emphasised that it was their political as well as legal battle and they hoped that in a state where the judiciary took a stand, no one could defeat that nation. That was the reason, Imran Khan always talked about the supremacy of the rule of law, he added. He said Imran Khan had been in jail for protection of rights of the nation; otherwise, he could also go abroad by seeking an NRO [deal] like Nawaz and Zardari. He warned that in the current situation, no foreign investor would invest in Pakistan, though a Saudi Arabian delegation was in Pakistan currently. Shibli lauded Saudi Arabia for always extending helping hand to Pakistan in difficult situation, and stated that Pakistan hosted two OIC conferences with the support of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. He said they welcomed the Saudi delegation to Pakistan, though a non-representative government was ruling the country. Shibli said on the one hand, they were begging the IMF for $1 billion loan, and on the other, billions of rupees were embezzled through commission in wheat scandal.

About appointment of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, Shibli Faraz said a political committee could advise Imran Khan on the issue; however, it was not a decision making body, as final decision rested with the PTI founding chairman.