Daily Times

A group of ruling PTI lawmakers supporting disgruntled party leader Jahangir Tareen are set to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan today, reports said.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has agreed to meet and listen to the reservations of a group of around 33 PTI lawmakers who have publically come out in support of Jahangir Tareen,” sources said, adding that Tareen will not attend the meeting personally but he will be represented by the likeminded members of national and provincial assemblies, who have warned the prime minister of taking ‘extreme decision’ if their concerns were not addressed.

Last week, the PTI lawmakers backing Tareen had refused to hold a meeting with a committee formed by the prime minister to hold talks with them, insisting they wanted the prime minister himself to listen to their reservations. “Imran Khan is our captain, and we will present our grievances only in front of him,” they had said.

A total of 33 MNAs and MPAs including Federal Minister Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, MNAs Ghulam Bharwana, Sami Gilani, Riaz Mazari, Khawaja Shiraz, Mubeen Anwar, Raja Riaz and several others will be meeting the prime minister today. During the meeting, the lawmakers will brief the prime minister about their grievances regarding the cases against Tareen, who was once considered a close friend of Imran Khan.

The PTI’s former secretary general was sidelined after an inquiry report about sugar crisis accused him of benefiting the most from a steep hike in prices of the commodity in January 2020. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has intensified its probe into Tareen’s alleged role in the sugar crisis. Tareen, however, believes that purpose of all such cases and inquiries against him was merely aimed at humiliating him and sidelining him from the mainstream politics. In recent weeks, a number of PTI lawmakers have started rallying around Tareen with speculations about emergence of a possible forward bloc in the PTI.