Imran meets religious scholars ahead of much-hyped long march

More than 30 religious scholars from Punjab called on former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in which various issues were discussed, Express News reported on Sunday.

The delegation, under the leadership of Chairman of Sunni Ittehad Council Pakistan Sahibzada Hamid Raza, met the ex-premier at his residence in Islamabad's Bani Gala. Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Senator Shibli Faraz and others were also present at the meeting

The ulema paid tribute to Imran for his services to Islam.

Hamid Raza also had a one-on-one meeting with Imran in which the strategy regarding the long march to Islamabad and the current political situation was discussed.

Read more: Imran loses hope in back-door talks

Imran appreciated Hamid Raza's efforts regarding inter-faith harmony.

On Saturday, the former prime minister announced that he would reveal the date for the party’s much-anticipated long march on coming Friday, saying that he was not expecting any “meaningful result from backchannel talks”.

The former prime minister, who has constantly been building momentum for the long march but has kept people guessing about its contours, heightened the suspense when he revealed that the final date for the long march would be announced on October 28, warning that the ‘organised protest’ could result into chaos if the government attempted to stop it.

“Political parties always hold backdoor talks but I do not think the ongoing talks will have any meaningful outcome,” the PTI chief said while addressing a news conference, flanked by party leader Azam Swati in Islamabad.

He said that the importance of the negotiations was only to the extent of early elections but, it seemed, the incumbent rulers were not going to call snap polls.

The PTI founder said that the “imposed rulers” suffered a humiliating defeat in the recently-held by-polls and realised that they could not compete with PTI in the election. “Therefore,” he said, “they will not call early elections,” adding through an official statement that holding talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is fruitless.