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Imran okays talks with establishment ‘on PTI’s terms’
• Warns leaders, ticket holders to join Nov 24 protest or quit party
• Wants ex-bureaucrat to testify in £190m case
ISLAMABAD: After his sister confirmed that Imran Khan had authorised top leaders to hold talks with the establishment, the former prime minister called on PTI leaders and ticket holders on Tuesday to “disassociate themselves from the party” if they could not participate in the power show, scheduled for Nov 24.
In a brief media interaction after Tuesday’s court proceedings, Mr Khan issued a stern warning for party leaders who would skip the November 24 protest.
He said that PTI lawmakers who got elected due to their party affiliation but don’t stand with its ideology “have no place in the party”.
The PTI founder hailed incarcerated party leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Yasmin Rashid, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Ejaz Chaudhry and Mahmoodur Rashid for their patience.
He said these leaders would be released forthwith “if they hold a press conference”. This was an apparent reference to former PTI leaders who parted ways from the party after the May 9 attacks and announced their decision in media talks.
The former prime minister acknowledged that he had previously only called on people associated with the PTI to protest, but, now he was extending the call to the entire nation.
Despite his call for protest, the PTI founder said he was “still ready for dialogues” and set three demands for calling off the upcoming protest: the return of PTI’s “stolen mandate”, reversal of the 26th Constitutional Amendment and the release of all political prisoners.
The statement came in the wake of Aleema Khan’s revelation that KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had sought permission from her brother to hold talks with the establishment.
Speaking to reporters after meeting her brother in Adiala jail on Monday, Aleema Khan quoted Mr Khan as saying that political parties never close their doors on talks, adding that the negotiations should remain limited to their stated three-point agenda.
Bureaucrat to testify
Separately, Mr Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi have asked an accountability court judge to summon 16 witnesses, including a former cabinet secretary, in the £190m corruption case.
The couple submitted an application through their counsels, Advocate Usman Riaz Gill and Zaheer Abbas, before the Accountability Court judge, Nasir Javed Rana.
They urged the court to summon the former top bureaucrat, Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera; Government College University, Punjab vice chancellor; Punjab Higher Education Commission chairman and other witnesses.
The defence counsels sought testimonies of those witnesses, which the prosecution initially mentioned in the list but reneged later on.
These witnesses included the executive director at Al-Qadir University Project, Dr Amjadur Rehman, and Mr Sukhera.
The applicants stated that these witnesses initially joined the investigation but the prosecution, with a “mala fide”, did not mention their names in the final list of witnesses or produced them before the trial court.
The petition requested the court to summon these witnesses before recording the statements of Mr Khan and his spouse.
Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2024
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