Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, currently incarcerated, has acknowledged the presence of rifts and factions within the party and plans to meet both factions tomorrow in Adiala jail, The News reported on Wednesday.

Refuting rumors of a forward bloc within PTI, Khan emphasized to reporters in a courtroom at Adiala that there were no significant differences within the party.

Khan’s comments come amidst internal turmoil, with party leaders publicly criticizing each other. The PTI core committee also recently denied the existence of any divisions.

Last month, PTI Secretary-General Omar Ayub resigned to focus on his role as National Assembly Opposition Leader. His resignation followed reports of party rifts, with sources telling Geo News that 27 PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) lawmakers considered resigning from the National Assembly in protest against the party’s leadership.

Among these lawmakers, 21 reportedly considered forming a forward bloc over the leadership’s failure to secure Khan’s release from jail. However, Ayub’s resignation was rejected by the PTI parliamentary party, and the core committee asked him to reconsider his decision.

Notably, PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat was issued a show-cause notice in May after refusing to work with Ayub and others. A PTI report blamed Marwat for a scuffle between the opposition leader and workers outside the Islamabad judicial complex, following a court’s decision against Khan and his spouse in an iddat case.

Recently, Marwat also demanded the resignation of Shibli Faraz, asserting that only then would the party be free from the “qabza mafia”.