Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (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.

“Politicians are also bound to do their politics within the constitutional parameters,” the National Assembly opposition leader told media in Lahore as he explained his point of view.

The PTI has been in trouble since May 9, 2023 – the day protests broke out following PTI founder Imran Khan’s arrest – as mobs attacked state installations, including the Corps Commander House in Lahore.

Khan, who has been behind bars for more than a year, had recently said that he was open to talks 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 Khan, 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 today, Ayub said that the PTI founder would move court seeking CCTV footage of the May 9 protests.

The PTI’s top leader said no deal had been struck with anyone. He added that Khan had stressed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party were trying to create rifts between the nation and the army.

Moving further, he claimed this was the year of a fresh election, and that’s why the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should be independent. Ayub’s above mentioned claim echoed his party founder’s statement, who said that the incumbent government led by the PML-N is only left with two months. “The government is plunging into a quagmire; however, they [rulers] are fools and unable to understand,” he said.

Meanwhile, in his conversation with reporters at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he had been in politics for 40 years and for 39 years, no case had been lodged against him – pointing towards dozens of cases registered following May 9.

“Dozens of cases were lodged against me in a year. Now, whether anyone likes it or not, the PTI founder is a reality. There’s not going to be stability if they do not accept this reality,” Qureshi added.

Calling for cooling the political heat, the former foreign minister said that the nation’s leaders should stop calling their rivals “traitors”. For 75 years, he said, “we’ve been distributing traitor certificates.”