Gohar seeks talks as backchannel cools
“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday called for dialogue to move political matters forward, saying the atmosphere surrounding back-channel contacts appeared "luk…”
Gohar also warned that PTI founder Imran Khan's health issue had been turned into a constitutional crisis and should not be passed "like a football" from one court to another.
Speaking to the media at the Adiala Road Dahgal checkpoint, Gohar said the PTI disagreed with the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) taking up the matter and maintained that the court should not have taken the case.
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.
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"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.
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