Cracks appear in senior PTI leadership
Inconsistency in the positions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan and senior leader Sher Afzal Marwat appeared on Thursday as the two held separate press conferences at the party’s central secretariat, taking different stands of various issues.
An interesting situation arose at the PTI secretariat, when Marwat arrived to hold a press conference immediately after the press conference of Gohar. Initially, Gohar tried to stop Marwat from holding the press conference but in vain. At his press conference, Gohar said that the PTI founder Imran Khan had never said that he did not trust Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
However, Marwat told the media that Imran had no confidence in Chief Justice Isa. He stressed that he was holding the press conference on the instructions of the PTI founder. Earlier, Gohar alleged that all attempts were being made to oust the PTI from the electoral arena through coercion under the so-called ‘London Plan’, which, he said, was evident from the rejection of nomination papers of 873 PTI’s candidates.
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He pointed out that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) bias could be judged from the fact that the nomination papers of almost the entire cabinet of PTI government, including then prime minister Imran Khan had been rejected on “technical and flimsy” grounds.
“According to the data collected by the PTI teams, a total of 873 candidates’ nomination papers were rejected hitherto, which is tantamount to disfranchise around 125 million populace,” the Gohar claimed. “Papers of 99% of top party leadership and all the known candidates … were rejected,” he said.
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“The data released by the ECP concealed the facts that more than 90% of the rejected papers consisted of PTI candidates. PTI's ticket holders and covering candidates were also specifically targeted and efforts were made to ensure that no notable candidate emerged in any national or provincial constituency.”
Gohar stated that PTI founder never said that he did not trust Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. “The PTI and its leadership have full trust in the top judiciary and are confident that the top court will intervene instantly and restore the party’s iconic ‘bat’ symbol,” he continued.
He said that his party would continue the process of ticket distribution, regardless of the election symbol, emphasising that “candidates will be fielded” in all constituencies. “We prefer candidates to contest elections under the party symbol of ‘bat’ rather than running independently,” he added.