RAWALPINDI - Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan has said that there is no point in negotiating with a government that lacks authority. During an informal conversation with the media during the hearing of the £190 million reference at the Adiala Jail here, he accused the administration of pressuring judges who give rulings in favour of PTI.
Imran alleged that a judge from Sargodha informed the Lahore High Court about pressure exerted by intelligence agencies. He claimed that the judge’s household gas supply was cut off and that judges sympathetic to PTI face immense pressure. “Journalists speaking in favour of PTI are being targeted; Raoof Hassan was attacked, and Ali Zaman was tortured,” Khan asserted.
He urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa to uphold the rule of law amidst these interferences. Khan praised a judge from Sargodha, six judges from Islamabad High Court, and three judges from the Supreme Court for their integrity.
Meanwhile, PTI leaders Raoof Hasan and Omar Ayub at a joint press conference in Islamabad said that their party would not talk with “three parties”.
In February, PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan had said that party founder Imran Khan had given instructions to initiate contact with all other political parties, except the PML-N, PPP and MQM-P.
The three parties are part of the coalition that is heading the government.
“Our contention since the first day is that they have nothing and they’re only mummies and dummies whose strings are controlled from elsewhere and they dance according to them,” Omar Ayub said explaining their party’s position on the talks.
He said Imran had clearly directed in “blunt words that we have no intention to negotiate with these three political parties at any stage”.
Hasan said if there was any ambiguity left about the matter then it should be removed now.
Omar added that Imran said that if Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Aain-i-Pakistan president Mahmood Khan Achakzai wanted to hold talks with anyone from the coalition alliance’s platform then he was welcome to do so but such negotiations would only be on the movement’s behalf.