Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has disclosed that former army chief General (r) Raheel Sharif had assured Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan during the dharna that if the judicial commission held the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government responsible for rigging the 2013 election, he would ask Nawaz Sharif to step down.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Times, Javed Hashmi said that Imran Khan was not happy over General (r) Raheel Sharif meeting him just for four to five minutes and giving Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri 35 minutes. He said that Imran was contented in the end, as the army chief had given him a guarantee regarding Nawaz Sharif.

“Yes, I am disappointed with Imran Khan. He himself did not want the PTI to become a strong party. It’s just a one-man show. The core committee and central executive committee are there just for the sake of it. Imran Khan doesn’t give them any importance. Despite all that, some leaders are with him because there are four to five candidates for the post of premiership in the PTI, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Khan Tareen and Asad Umar,” the former PTI leader claimed.

Hashmi said that when he joined the PTI and was in a vehicle with Imran Khan, he noted that the party chief was taking advice from somewhere else. “I urged him to take steps after consulting party leaders, but he said ‘Hashmi Sahab, I am the party’. This attitude put me off, but even then I tried my best as the party president to run the affairs smoothly.”

He said that during the dharna it was decided in a meeting that the PTI would not attack the Parliament House, but Imran Khan, in a few hours, changed his mind and said he did not have appropriate numbers to mount an attack. “So he went to Tahirul Qadri and sought his help, and then attacked the Parliament House… I was the only who protested with Imran Khan, saying that we should not attack parliament because even we were members of that same parliament. But he did not care and said to me ‘Hashmi Sahab, if you want to go, you can leave us’. So I made up my mind and resigned,” Hashmi claimed.

On the role of establishment in politics, he said it was a fact that the establishment had interests in politics. “I was the only politician who stood up against them. Even I was not anti-establishment. [But] I have a habit of speaking the truth, and due to this I was declared a baghi (rebel)… and [yes] I am a baghi.”

Regarding his future, Hashmi said he was thinking about it. “[Pakistan] Muslim League-Nawaz is my family, and I might join my family in the next [general] election,” he said, adding that consultations were underway in this regard. He also disclosed that during the inauguration of metro bus in Multan, he had a fruitful meeting with Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. About the Panamagate, Hashmi said Hassan and Hussain Nawaz should not have invested in offshore companies. However, he defended the premier by saying that his name was not in the Panama Papers. He said that the decision of the Panamagate case would affect the politics of the PML-N as well as that of the PTI.

“I am certain that if the Supreme Court decided against Imran Khan, he would not accept the decision and come on the roads again because it was his habit. The entire nation has witnessed this in the past… his politics has damaged the party. Today there are differences within the party even at the tehsil and district levels.”

Hashmi challenged Imran Khan to a “dope test” to clear once and for all where “each of them stood”.

He advised Imran Khan to “behave like a leader”, adding that the PTI had suffered a lot due to his style of running the party affairs. “In my view, the PTI has no standing. “Some people are there just for their own benefits,” he concluded.