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Thursday March 28, 2024

PTI rubbishes reports of alliance talks with PSP

By Zubair Ashraf
December 27, 2017

Around two weeks after reports surfaced that Mustafa Kamal and Imran Khan, while having a telephonic conversation, have agreed to meet soon to discuss a political alliance, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders have rubbished the claims, saying that nothing of the sort was being considered.

“There have been political meetings; people from both sides stay in touch with each other; but Imran did not talk about a political alliance with Kamal,” PTI Karachi President Firdous Shamim Naqvi told The News on Tuesday. However, he opined that nothing was final in politics.

Naqvi said the PTI would not make any compromises on the Baldia factory fire incident and would stand with its demand of bringing to book all the culprits involved in the inferno. “But as a political party we are open to talk and there have been some contacts with the PSP.”

Around 260 people were killed and three to four dozens were wounded as a fire ripped through the Ali Enterprises garments factory in Baldia Town on September 11, 2012. The prosecution maintains that the fire was caused on the orders from Hammad Siddiqui, the then leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, over the factory owners’ refusal to pay extortion money.

“The person who ordered the fire must be held accountable,” he said, without naming Siddiqui, who reportedly has connections with the top leadership of the Pak Sarzameen Party. “We will vehemently oppose any attempt that intends to pave him a way out,” he said, apparently criticising Kamal’s narrative of the fire story.

PSP Chairman Kamal recently upheld the initial prosecution version of the fire that it was caused due to a short circuit and there was no terrorism factor involved in it. Interestingly, he made the claim at a time when the Pakistani authorities are bringing Siddiqui back to the country from Dubai with the help of the Interpol.

Earlier in the day, Naqvi addressed a news conference at the Karachi Press Club along with party leaders, including Ali Zaidi and Firdous Ashiq Awan, and demanded that the latest joint investigation report on the fire incident should be made public. He lamented that five years on, the victims still longed for justice.  

The telephonic conversation

According to sources within the PTI, majority of the party leaders don’t want a political alliance with the PSP and they advised the party chairman, Imran, against it. “We didn’t let Imran speak with Kamal,” said a leader of the party, claiming that the conversation never happened.

When asked about the conversation, Naqvi said that it was not in “the best” of his knowledge and he was out of the city when the reports emerged. He, however, could recall a similar talk that occurred previously, but not in Karachi.

On December 14, PSP Vice-Chairman Waseem Aftab had said that Kamal and Imran discussed the overall political situation and agreed to hold a meeting soon. “But there was no talk of an alliance.”