Imran hints at return to National Assembly

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan hinted at return to the National Assembly on Monday for consultation with the treasury benches “on an interim set-up to be installed after the dissolution” of the lower house of parliament.

Speaking to a select group of journalists here, Imran foresaw the next general elections taking place in the country in two to three months. Without their presence, he added, the government would be consulting the current Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Raja Riaz, about the caretaker government.

He underscored that “the PTI has now decided” to give a tough time to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and promised that “he [Shehbaz Sharif] will have sleepless nights in the days to come”. He claimed that some Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) National Assembly members wanted to join the PTI.

“Some of the PM-N members of the National Assembly are in contact with the PTI and they have expressed their interest in joining our camp. We will test them before giving them the party membership,” Imran said, adding that he saw elections taking place in March or April.

About the local bodies elections in Sindh, the PTI chief said that the main reasons behind their defeat were weaknesses in the party organisation and the rigging carried out by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), adding that the “Bajwa doctrine still persists”, a reference to former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

On the economic situation, Imran said, the government was in a tight spot. “Finance Minister Ishaq Dar needed to increase the prices of petroleum products last night but he did not. After this, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not continue with its programme. They [the government] are badly stuck”.

About the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Imran said that the party’s future was tied to the PTI. “The Q-League [candidates] have a better chance of winning the upcoming elections if they contest on our party’s tickets,” he said, adding that he also wanted the “alliance arrangement to come to an end”.

Responding to a question, the former prime minister underscored that the PTI would hold countrywide protests against the arrest of journalist Shahid Aslam, who had been arrested for sharing the tax details of former army chief Gen (retd) Bajwa.

Later, PTI leader Farrukh Habib told the media persons that the PTI had called a meeting of its senior leaders to deliberate on matters related to the National Assembly as well as the dissolution of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Habib called for “truth and reconciliation” in order to bury the bitterness that existed in the country at present. “The PTI chairman has shown magnanimity by proposing the truth and reconciliation, although our party is a victim of atrocities and discrimination,” he added.

“Let us speak the truth and reconcile with the truth, and hold immediate general elections,” he said. He expressed the fear that the country was on the verge of default and “under the IMF programme, the government has no choice but to enhance the prices of electricity and gas, which would bring more inflation”.

Meanwhile, talking to a private TV channel, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the government will “welcome back” PTI MNAs to the National Assembly if they were to return but maintained that any discussion over a caretaker set-up can be held only once the mandated tenure of the government expires in August.

He said: “Of course, we will welcome them [back] into the assembly as even when they were leaving, we had said it was an undemocratic decision.”

The interior minister asserted, “They (PTI MNAs) will have to withdraw their resignations for returning [to the National Assembly] […] and will have to come and sit in the assembly.”