PTI seeks talks with establishment

ISLAMABAD:

In a bid to resolve tensions, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan called on Wednesday for talks with the country’s powerful stakeholders ahead of the upcoming general elections, saying the party has no quarrel with the establishment and all it wants is to be heard.

Expressing a desire to address any misunderstandings, the newly-elected PTI chairman said that the party was ready to sit across the table with the powers that be, emphasising that it wants to clear the air and establish a constructive dialogue so that the dust could finally settle down.

The plea for opening a channel of communication has come amid an ongoing standoff between the military establishment and incarcerated ex-premier Imran Khan since his ouster in April 2022. It increased at the time of the appointment of the incumbent army chief and intensified after May 9, 2023, when PTI leaders and workers allegedly attacked country’s civil and military installations.

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“PTI has no issue with anyone, including establishment; PTI, Imran Khan and we have consistently been saying that the country is ours, the army is ours,” Barrister Gohar said during an interaction with journalists on Wednesday evening in the capital. He was accompanied by party’s information secretary, Raof Hassan, and other PTI officials.

The PTI chairman, who met the journalists right after his meeting with Imran Khan in Adiala Jail, shed light on different issues that the party is currently facing and, in response to different questions, reiterated that PTI seeks dialogue with the powerful stakeholders.

During the meeting, Gohar revealed that he has been sitting with Imran Khan inside the cold walls of jail and finalising the names of the poll candidates for constituencies across the country, saying the party would announce the names in a couple of days as consultation with Imran has almost been completed.

‘ECP being used to corner PTI’

Lamenting on the role of the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Gohar said that ECP has literally become a party against PTI as it not only deprived the party of its election symbol of cricket bat but has consistently been contesting the matter before the courts.
“The electoral watchdog is chasing the case like it had never done so in the past,” he noted, saying “the ECP was being used to corner PTI at all costs.”

He recalled that the PTI conducted the most transparent intra-party elections but out of the total 175 registered political parties, the electoral body only targeted PTI, clearly depicting that all these unjust actions were taken to sideline and push against the wall the most popular political party of the country.

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“Giving government to a party having 20 or 25 per cent public support against the party having support of over 70 percent of the nation would be a great injustice to the country and the nation,” he said.Barrister Gohar said that PTI fulfilled all the conditions of the ECP yet it has been deprived of its election symbol.

Emphasising that PTI would contest polls with or without bat symbol and wouldn’t give a walk over to its opponents in the general elections, Gohar, however, admitted that contesting polls with independent candidates would once again open the gates for “horse trading”.

Clarifying that PTI hasn’t shown mistrust on any judge, Gohar urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa to take notice of the treatment meted out to PTI and help provide level-playing field. He said that the Supreme Court should immediately intervene to thwart the conspiracy to deprive PTI of its electoral symbol and block the way of horse-trading to save democracy in the country.

He reminded that the apex court had already settled that snatching the electoral symbol was tantamount to dissolving a political party and this right only lies with the apex court under Article 17 of the Constitution. However, he stated: “If our electoral symbol is taken away; all PTI candidates are forced to contest as independent candidates, saying if this happens then who will be responsible for horse-trading after the polls?”

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In the absence of the electoral symbol, the PTI chief said that the party could be deprived of a total of 227 reserved that play an important role in the election of the president and prime minister, among others, saying they would go to the party contesting elections on electoral symbol. “PTI could not be deprived of 227 reserved seats come what may,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, Gohar expressed his disappointment over the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict, restoring the ECP's order which had stripped the party of its iconic electoral symbol ‘bat’ because it was not just the PTI’s electoral symbol but was also the symbol of the expectations of millions of Pakistani people.

He said that Imran Khan sacrificed his party chairmanship for protecting the party’s electoral symbol “bat” for the people of the country, for democracy and the prosperity and development of Pakistan but to no avail. Barrister Gohar made it clear that all the brutal and unlawful tactics were being used against PTI and its leaders and workers, which clearly indicated that these people were even scared of “PTI’s under-19 team.”

“If you take away the “bat”, the world will not recognise your election,” Gohar said, reiterating that PTI would not boycott the election and contest the polls under any circumstances. He said that the entire state machinery was brought to a standstill to oust the PTI of electoral race because they were well-aware of the fact that PTI would trounce its political opponents conveniently if free, fair and transparent polls were held on February 8, 2024.