PTI leaders upset with Bushra, Aleema’s attitude and interference

ISLAMABAD: PTI leaders are upset at the alleged harsh attitude and growing interference of Bushra Bibi and Aleema Khan in the party affairs.

Some senior party leaders, on condition of not being named, said that the rude behaviour of the wife and sister of Imran Khan with party leaders is on the rise. Thursday’s confrontation of Aleema Khan with Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Suleman Akram Raja within the court premises in Adiala jail was just a reflection of the situation which the party leaders are faced with.

“Most of the PTI leaders have given extraordinary sacrifices, are named in dozens of FIRs, faced jails, lost their businesses and yet we are insulted,” a party leader said. He added while reasons for resignations of Suleman Akram Raja and Sahibzada Raza have been reported by the media, there was a lot more that many leaders were experiencing but not known to the public.

A source said that KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur also finds himself in a very difficult situation. The source said that a PTI senator from Punjab may also tell someday how he was ridiculed in front of all other leaders. In a recently leaked audio, Ali Muhammad Khan was heard saying in the party’s political committee that Bushra Bibi had disregarded the directive of Imran Khan and insisted on moving the protest march to the Red Zone. He also criticised the decision to announce the November 24 protest through Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, instead of senior party officials like the chairman or secretary general.

Shaukat Yousafzai, another PTI leader, had also expressed his anger in public as to why the protest march was not stopped at Sangjani. He also criticised the leadership for allowing non-political individuals to influence key decisions, adding, “Bushra Bibi is a non-political individual. Even if she was insistent, was the party leadership so weak to allow this?”

Many party leaders are also upset with the interviews of Bushra Bibi’s sister and her spokesperson. In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Bushra Bibi’s spokesperson, Mashal Yousafzai, recently said that former prime minister Imran Khan places his full trust in his wife, Bushra Bibi, believing that his party leadership is compromised and working against him. According to the party sources, while Aleema Khan is asking the party leaders to give exaggerated figures of the deaths relating to Nov 24 protest, Bushra Bibi is directly contacting party MPs in KP. Party’s Information Secretary Shaikh Waqas, when contacted, said that both the women are respected by the party leaders. He insisted they have nothing to do with the PTI politics. He denied their interference in the party matters and said that for being closely related to Imran Khan and for their access to the jailed founder chairman of PTI, these women do pass Khan’s messages to the party. Shaikh also denied that the attitude of these women with party leaders was harsh or rude.