Gohar says not contacted for meeting with US delegation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Monday said that he will ask the Speaker’s Office about the meeting with the US delegation, saying neither was a card sent to him for the meeting nor was there any contact with him on WhatsApp.

Talking to the media here, he explained that no contact was made with him regarding the meeting with the visiting delegations. He added that PTI has already said that there should be an agreement on the interests of the country.

Gohar said that the party founder has made it clear that if the heads of friendly countries or delegations come to the country, they must support them.

He also clarified, “As far as I know, I have not received any call or message; I have not seen any card or invitation from the American embassy. If there was any contact with us, we would definitely go.”

In a related development, PTI senior leader and Leader of Opposition in the Senate Syed Shibli Faraz has criticised Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq for not inviting Leaders of Opposition in the National Assembly and the Senate and Barrister Gohar in his meeting with US Congressmen while inviting other party members.

He contended that not inviting opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate is the Speaker’s malice; Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has not harmed PTI but the prestige of the House.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Atif Khan, who was invited to the meeting, said that there was no discussion in front of him regarding the meeting of US Congressmen with the party founder or his release.

After the meeting, Atif Khan said that Dr Amjad and he were present in the meeting from the PTI and it has come to his knowledge that Barrister Gohar and Omar Ayub were invited. “I do not know whether the two leaders were invited or not, people from political parties and federal ministers were present in the meeting,” he noted.

He said that there was an official event where the Congressman spoke, bilateral relations between Pakistan and the US were discussed; there was no discussion in front of him regarding the meeting with the founder of PTI or his release.

Meanwhile, PTI information secretary Waqas Akram asserted that his party would not hold dialogue with the puppets (rulers) who had neither the mandate nor the authority to even appoint an SHO.

Waqas made it clear that the PTI founder always placed the country’s interests above all else and would only hold talks to uphold constitutional supremacy, true democracy, the rule of law, and real independence.

He told Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar to worry about his own “precarious” future and that of his leadership instead of Imran Khan and the PTI.