Imran declares PTI a ‘govt in waiting’

PTI now to file petition against Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal for holding Iqama

ISLAMABAD: Apparently the April 29 Lahore rally has given a new confidence to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan who on Thursday advised senior party leaders that now they should start behaving like ‘a government-in-waiting’.

Senior leaders of the party met at Khan’s Bani Gala residence to review and deliberate on the PTI’s overall performance in Lahore rally in particular and the country’s political situation. They also reviewed the party’s internal affairs and its strategy for the upcoming general elections.

“After the Lahore rally and presentation of historic 11-point reforms programme, we have strong reasons to believe that PTI is indeed a government in waiting.

“This fact was clearly reflected through Khan’s discussion with party leaders, as he advised all of us that we should act accordingly,” a senior PTI leader, who attended the moot, told The Express Tribune.

He, however, refuted the impression that the internal discussions were about finalisation of party’s shadow cabinet. “It’s a bit early to think about it,” he added.



A statement issued by the party’s central media department after the meeting reads, “The PTI is all set for the upcoming general elections. The eleven points of Chairman PTI will pave the way to the brighter future of the country.”

It added that in the meeting the PTI leaders were directed to disseminate the PTI’s eleven-point plan across length and breadth of the country and mobilise public for the forthcoming general elections.

The participants of the meeting also came down hard on former premier Nawaz Sharif, who, they said, was frenzied after PTI’s landmark rally in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s political bastion.

“Nawaz Sharif’s narrative after his disqualification is absurd and ambiguous at the same time. It’s an attempt to mislead people about his corruption worth Rs300 billion.

“PML-N has deteriorated country’s administrative, economic and political infrastructure and now it’s need of the hour to unshackle the country from the mire of crisis,” Khan was quoted as saying.

The PTI leadership also strongly condemned the brazen attacks on state institutions by Sharif family and laid stress on concluding the corruption cases against the Sharifs without further delay.

The meeting also condemned recently presented budget for financial year 2018-19 by the PML-N government, hours long load shedding, and below the belt comments of senior PML-N leaders about PTI’s women activists.

Petition against Ahsan

The senior party leadership also approved filing petition against Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal for holding a foreign work permit (Iqama). Through a petition to be filed before the Islamabad High Court, the party would seek disqualification of Iqbal under Article 62 (1) (f) for concealing facts.

“The PTI leadership has formally approved the move to file petition in the court seeking disqualification of federal minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal over Iqama. After Nawaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif now is the turn of Ahsan Iqbal to stand in the dock of law,” said the PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry.



Iqbal has the Iqama of Saudi Arabia. By the mid of 2017, Iqbal had admitted that he holds an iqama and on a social media website he had claimed: “I worked in Madina Munawarah in 2004-06, afterwards (I) retained Iqama without receiving any compensation for frequent travel; hence no illegal act.”

Giving details of his job, Iqbal had claimed that he had served as an adviser to the governor of Madina from 2004 to 2006 on a digital economy project but said he never withdrew any salary for the project adding that he had declared his Iqama in his documents submitted before the 2013 polls.