MULTAN: Veteran politician Javed Hashmi has said he had the option to create forward bloc within the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf instead of resigning from his National Assembly seat, but he did not go for it.

At a press conference here on Saturday, Mr Hashmi said the idea was floated by one of his friends but he rejected it as he did not want to divide Imran Khan’s party.

“I refused to form forward bloc (in PTI) as I thought it inappropriate while I also did not want my political career to get stuck there,” Hashmi said.

He said that he was not going to form a new political party and would represent the people of Multan to send him in the National Assembly as an independent member.

He said that he would ask PML-N leadership to campaign for him so that he could later disagree with them in a democratic way.

He said contradictions in the PTI policies were increasing with the passage of time and he had already informed the party chairman Imran Khan about it.

He said according to the PTI leadership’s plan the elections were going to be held on Sept 5 after the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which did not happen.

“Neither Nawaz resigned nor the date for fresh election was announced. However, I have reached

Multan to face the public’s court on Oct 16,” he said.

He claimed that the PTI had even finalised the lists of its candidates for new elections.

“However, today the sit-ins have lost their moral ground,” he said.

He said that although he would not dare to deny the claim of Imran Khan that the PTI did not hold sit-in to fulfill the agenda of anyone; however he (Imran Khan) does not forget his (Hashmi’s) point of view.

He said Imran Khan thought if the government was not removed immediately it would get strengthened by improving its performance, while he (Hashmi) was of the view that if the government was given two more years it would itself become weak and fall.

“Imran Khan can now observe that entire scene has changed. There are differences within the party and the youth has become desperate,” he said.

He said 95pc of the predictions he had made to PTI leadership had proven true, while the remaining would also prove true within a couple of weeks.

“There is a difference between holding big public rallies and winning elections,” he said, adding that Imran should rectify the mistakes he had made.

He said that to strengthen his group at district level, the PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi was using the party and the personality of Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2014