Shafaqna Pakistan: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday called for dialogue to help resolve political issues, saying the environment around the latest back-channel contacts appeared “lukewarm”.
Gohar also said PTI founder Imran Khan’s health-related matter had been turned into a constitutional crisis, arguing that it should not be passed “like a football” between different courts.
Speaking to reporters at the Adiala Road Dahgal checkpoint, Gohar said PTI disagreed with the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) taking up the case and maintained that the court should not have entertained the matter.
He said the Supreme Court had issued an order directing that the incarcerated PTI founder be shifted to hospital and that a medical board be constituted, but the order had not been implemented.
Contempt petitions had subsequently been filed before the SC, he added.
“If the Constitutional Court was going to call the case to itself, it should not have adjourned it indefinitely,” Gohar said, stressing that positive measures were needed to reduce tensions in the country.
He also criticised the treatment meted out to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi in Lahore, calling it regrettable.
He said it was the responsibility of the relevant provincial authorities to provide security to a chief minister visiting another province and that the police should not have taken even a single step forward.
“Such attitudes will increase hatred,” he said, adding that the Punjab chief minister and Punjab police should apologise for the treatment of Afridi.
Asked about PTI MNA Sher Afzal Marwat, Gohar said he would presumably be following his party’s line and that a notice should not have been issued on his application.
He said the question of who would or would not be chief minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was a political matter and that courts did not decide political or academic questions.
“The head of PTI is the founder of PTI,” Gohar said, noting that Imran Khan had first appointed Ali Amin Gandapur and later Sohail Afridi as chief minister.
Gohar said the PTI supported Jamaat-e-Islami’s protests and march against inflation, but the two parties would hold separate marches.
He said the JI emir had made it clear that he would not join the PTI march but would participate in the proposed all-parties conference.
Gohar claimed that a large number of people would take to the streets on September 27.
He also denied reports of any meeting between Imran Khan and a senior-level personality, saying no such meeting had taken place.
Source: Express Tribune
