Daily Times

Criticising the incumbent government’s alleged tactics to suppress the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday that the country might not achieve political stability without the recognition of the party’s founder Imran Khan’s role.

“Imran Khan is a political reality,” said Qureshi during an informal interaction with journalists in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, adding: “Without accepting this reality, our country cannot achieve political stability.”

Criticising a plethora of cases filed against him after May 9, 2023, riots, the politico said that dozens of cases had been lodged against him within just one year. He added that he had been in politics for 40 years but not a single case was registered against him in the last 39 years. The former ruling party has been facing crackdown for its alleged involvement in the May 9 riots that saw military installations including Rawalpindi’s General Headquarters (GHQ) and Lahore Corps Commander’s House being vandalised by mobs. He said that slain Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was “not anti-Pakistan” and became a victim of “cruelty”. The former foreign minister claimed that the trend of labelling everyone “traitor” for the last 75 years should be stopped.

He urged stakeholders to resolve Balochistan issues via dialogue. Responding to criticism against the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chairman’s nomination as the opposition’s mediator, Qureshi said that Mahmood Khan Achakzai “is a democrat and an individual having democratic and constitutional ideology cannot be labelled ‘traitor'”.

Khan, who has been behind bars for more than a year, had recently said that he was open to talks with military but only within the ambit provisioned by the Constitution and also promised to apologise if PTI workers were found responsible for the May 9 riots. “Am I insane to ask our people to attack the army,” said the cricketer-turned-politician, adding that the PTI workers were not involved in the May 9 riots and they were wrongfully declared “terrorists” for staging peaceful protests. In his conversation with the media in Lahore, PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub said Saturday that the armed forces and intelligence agencies are state employees as he called on the institutions to stay within their limits.