From Adiala to Times Square: PTI frustrates all peace efforts with establishment

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur is making fresh efforts to break the deadlock between Imran Khan and the establishment but have failed to yield any positive results as yet.

Despite engaging in discussions with an important figure regarding PTI’s role during recent Pak-India recent war, Gandapur though receive appreciation for the PTI for standing with Pakistan and its defence forces against India, neither assurances of political relief nor a softening of stance toward Imran Khan is secured.

Sources say that while Gandapur attempted to use PTI’s patriotic credentials during Pak-India war as a bridge, the move didn’t work due to persistent attacks against top military command from Imran Khan, party’s social media and its supporters abroad. The irony, insiders note, is so obvious. While certain PTI figures like Gandapur and overseas intermediaries work behind the scenes to get a political opening for the party, its founder Imran Khan and the social media apparatus remain on the offensive. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Imran Khan launched a direct attack on Field Marshal Asim Munir. Simultaneously, PTI supporters in the United States have escalated their international campaign, financing massive digital billboards in New York’s Times Square, criticising Pakistan’s military and current rulers at a time when India is actively lobbying against Pakistan on the global stage. These actions are undermining efforts of quiet diplomacy including that of Gandapur as well as the US-based Pakistan doctors and businessmen. Now even a gossip within the PTI has started against Pakistani-American businessman Tanweer Ahmed, who visited Khan several times in Adiala Jail in the past in hopes of bridging gap between the PTI and the establishment for the good of Pakistan.

Tanweer, speaking to Geo News’ Murtaza Ali Shah recently, recounted how he candidly told Imran Khan about the toxic political atmosphere his rhetoric had contributed to. He urged the former premier to help tone down polarisation for the sake of Pakistan’s unity. “Imran Khan was concerned,” said Tanweer, adding Khan even seemed unaware of the extent of division and the false narratives being built outside. He said there was an agreement that reconciliation and national cohesion were critical.

However, in a bitter twist, Tanweer’s outreach has been discredited within Khan’s inner circle. According to sources, the jailed PTI leader has been misinformed that Tanweer spoke against him on television, portraying the businessman’s genuine concerns as betrayal. This perception, it is believed, would not only sour Khan’s view of a key sympathiser, but it will also discouraged other mediators, including US-based Pakistani doctors who alongwith Tanweer ate making effort to lower the temperature between Khan and establishment. With Imran Khan unwilling to stop and the party’s global chapters vilification campaign against the Field Marshal, there is little space left for backchannel efforts. A source familiar with recent developments put it: “When even sincere efforts are twisted into betrayal, and the party leadership is not interested in restraint, what room is left for dialogue?”

Barrister Saif Ali Khan, when contacted, told The News that he is not in knowledge of any recent interaction of KP CM with the establishment. He, however, said that the chief minister, some other PTI leaders and he himself are making efforts for dialogue with the establishment to bring an end the differences between the two and pave way for an amicable political solution.