Imran to give call for ‘big movement’: Aleema

ISLAMABAD: Aleema Khan Monday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder chairman Imran Khan had called on the party workers to roll up their sleeves for a big movement for which he will announce a date, as the times had changed.

“I will not call people to Islamabad. Rather, we will launch a movement throughout Pakistan,” she quoted the party supremo as telling her during their meeting at the Adiala Jail. However, she noted that Imran had made it clear that there was no place in the party for those playing on both sides of the wicket, and that they should decide on their own.

She regretted that the rights of ordinary prisoners were not being given to her brother and even the court orders were being repeatedly flouted. She said Imran was allowed to talk to his children once in eight months. She further said the party founder complained that the authorities were not allowing his sisters to meet him.

According to Aleema, Imran said, “Even if I am put in jail for the rest of my life, I will not bow down. They can do whatever they want”.

The party founder, she pointed out, also said a close eye was being kept on everyone in the party. Imran recently asked the party president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Junaid Akbar to step down as chairman Public Accounts Committee in order to focus on the party and its movement.

However, the very next day, he sent him a message to decide whether to continue as the PAC chairman and the party’s provincial chapter president.

Junaid had replaced Khyber Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur as KP PTI president a few months back. Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Monday claimed that the party founder Imran Khan’s petition will be fixed before Eid and advised the workers to keep their emotions under control for his release.

Talking to the media outside the Islamabad High Court, he explained that there was hope that the case will be fixed before Eid.

“Our people are tired of enduring, as no one can even imagine why Imran Khan spent two years in jail,” he remarked. Gohar emphasised that the workers should trust the leadership and maintained that every possible effort was being made for the release of their leader.

He also pointed out that Imran himself was aware of ‘our efforts and we are doing everything with his advice’. Gohar said it was right of the party workers to raise questions for Imran Khan’s release.

Meanwhile, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz said the PPP and PMLN government will end as soon as the party founder was released. Talking to the media at the Islamabad High Court, Shibli said the petitioners come to the court to seek justice and ‘we believe in the Constitution and the law’. He said everyone was watching the current situation, and wondered who will do investment in Pakistan.