Tareen asks Qureshi not to wash dirty linen in public

LODHRAN: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Jahangir Tareen on Saturday asked party Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi not to wash the dirty linen in public.

He said the internal issues should be resolved within the party.

A day earlier, Qureshi slammed Tareen without naming him saying he didn’t consider the latter a competitor for he couldn’t contest the elections. He said Tareen was not even part of the game and his competition was in the political arena.

Addressing a press conference in Lodhran, Tareen said he had heard Qureshi’s press conference but did not want to comment on it.

Responding to the party vice chairman’s presser, Tareen said Qureshi shouldn’t have gone public with the issues like these.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on Qureshi’s statements,” he said, adding that none of the party leaders should communicate matters through press conferences.

“These things cannot be done in PTI,” he said, stressing that decisions on internal rifts should be made behind closed doors. “It is inappropriate to discuss any matters between individuals on the media,” Tareen said. Moreover, he stressed that his efforts were only directed toward the party’s victory in the upcoming election.

“I am striving to distribute tickets to only those members who can win from their constituencies and Imran Khan is making efforts for the same objective,” he said.

“If our candidates don’t win from their constituencies, then Imran will not become the prime minister,” Tareen told the media.

Tareen and Qureshi have been at loggerheads over the distribution of party tickets, amid ongoing protests by party workers over ‘unfair’ ticket distribution. The former had previously stressed on not making party matters public, following Qureshi’s press conference.

According to reports the two senior PTI leaders have been at odds over the award of election tickets to party candidates.