Islamabad  -  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Thursday said the party postponed its October 15 protest in Islamabad on the request of some friendly countries participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit.

“PTI has had close relations with these countries while we were in government. We understand that we will have to maintain good relations with these countries when we seize power in future,” the secretary general PTI said while addressing a press conference. He was responding to the criticism coming from within the party and outside that PTI leadership compromised over the party interests and well-being of jailed leader Imran Khan by postponing its protest on the first day of the SCO Summit. He said the party leadership had also received requests from at least its 70 MPAs to postpone the protest because many had gone into hiding to avoid “brutality” of the police. “We had also received similar requests from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the federal government,” he added.

PTI Secretary General Raja said the health and well-being of ex-premier Khan was of utmost importance for the party and they could not even think of compromising over it. The decision of the Political Committee to postpone the protest was based on honesty and good intentions following appeals from different quarters, he added. “Accusations are being made against us through a well-thought-out plan, but we will continue our fight for the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law,” he said, adding that their resistance in politics would continue.

He claimed this was the history of brutality and cruelty across the country that the daughter-in-law of former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was abducted from Lahore, the other day. She was detained for four hours and told that they were doing all those for the economic development of the country, he said. The secretary general regretted youths were being put in jail without trial. He underlined that the families of PTI MNA Riaz Fatyana and party Senator Dr. Zarqa Suharwardy were harassed only to force them to vote for the controversial constitutional amendment bill. He alleged that the purpose of the constitutional amendment is to paralyze the judiciary, as for the last few days pretense is being made in the name of judicial reforms. Votes are being taken by beating people and insulting the honor of sisters, he said. He claimed that the people of Pakistan are standing and ready to fight this fascism.