General elections: Munter denies predicting PTI’s victory
Imran Khan’s aide insists US envoy made the prediction in a confidential letter.
LAHORE:
The outgoing US ambassador, Cameron Munter, has denied telling the Obama administration in a confidential letter that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would sweep the next parliamentary vote. “That is not true,” Munter said in a TV talk show on Monday.
Pakistani media speculated that the outgoing US envoy had told his bosses in Washington that the PTI would sweep the next elections. The report had been the topic of columnists in national dailies.
“We think since the report was a leak and it was a confidential document, the ambassador did not concede its existence,” said Andleeb Abbas, the information secretary for the Punjab chapter of the PTI.
“The ambassador must have seen public meetings of Imran Khan, especially the ones in Quetta and Peshawar, which were an eye-opener,” said Abbas. In September, thousands of people would participate in a rally towards Waziristan carrying the message of peace and friendship, she said.
The PTI spokesperson said her party’s membership drive has produced amazing figures. “Our target was four million but we ended up registering 6.7 million members – a figure that also took us by surprise.”
She said the membership records were transparent and anyone, including the media, could check that. The basic members of the PTI would form an electoral college that would pick the ticket holders in the next elections.
Meanwhile, PTI chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday that if the PPP continued to defy the Supreme Court and did not write the Swiss letter, his party would unleash a ‘tsunami march’ on Islamabad to get the court verdicts implemented. In a statement, Imran said his party stood by the apex court and would force the rulers to implement its rulings.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2012.
The outgoing US ambassador, Cameron Munter, has denied telling the Obama administration in a confidential letter that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would sweep the next parliamentary vote. “That is not true,” Munter said in a TV talk show on Monday.
Pakistani media speculated that the outgoing US envoy had told his bosses in Washington that the PTI would sweep the next elections. The report had been the topic of columnists in national dailies.
“We think since the report was a leak and it was a confidential document, the ambassador did not concede its existence,” said Andleeb Abbas, the information secretary for the Punjab chapter of the PTI.
“The ambassador must have seen public meetings of Imran Khan, especially the ones in Quetta and Peshawar, which were an eye-opener,” said Abbas. In September, thousands of people would participate in a rally towards Waziristan carrying the message of peace and friendship, she said.
The PTI spokesperson said her party’s membership drive has produced amazing figures. “Our target was four million but we ended up registering 6.7 million members – a figure that also took us by surprise.”
She said the membership records were transparent and anyone, including the media, could check that. The basic members of the PTI would form an electoral college that would pick the ticket holders in the next elections.
Meanwhile, PTI chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday that if the PPP continued to defy the Supreme Court and did not write the Swiss letter, his party would unleash a ‘tsunami march’ on Islamabad to get the court verdicts implemented. In a statement, Imran said his party stood by the apex court and would force the rulers to implement its rulings.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2012.