Imran urges leaders to set aside differences

Express Tribune

4 days ago

PTI founder Imran Khan has ordered every member of his party to immediately set aside all internal differences and focus solely on the party's August 5 protest movement, "for which no meaningful momentum is being built at present".
In a special message dated July 22 released from Adiala Jail, the former prime minister described PTI leaders' internal rifts at this "critical juncture" as "disgraceful and condemnable" and warned that anyone found engaging in factionalism within the party will be expelled.
He said he was fighting for the future of our generations, and every sacrifice he made was for that cause. "To create rifts within the party at this time would be a direct betrayal of my mission and vision," he added.
According to the PTI founder, the "so-called government formed through Form 47" has crippled the judiciary through the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
"The way biased judges are now delivering blatantly unjust verdicts under these courts is visible to the entire nation. We must launch a robust campaign to liberate the judiciary, for no nation can survive, let alone progress, without judicial independence."
Imran said his greatest success is that despite unprecedented oppression, the public stands with him.
"On February 8th (2024), the people expressed their trust in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf by voting for you even in the absence of an electoral symbol. After such a clear mandate, it is the moral and political responsibility of every party member to become the voice of the people," he added.
At the beginning of the message, Imran Khan claimed that never in the history of Pakistan had any political leader been subjected to the treatment that he was currently enduring.
He said former PM Nawaz Sharif committed corruption worth billions and was nevertheless granted every possible comfort in prison. "In contrast, never before has the innocent and apolitical spouse of a political figure been imprisoned under such inhumane conditions as those imposed upon Bushra Bibi."
The PTI patron-in-chief stated that he was enduring the harshest prison term in the country's history solely for the supremacy of the Constitution and in service of my nation.
On Thursday, Judge Shahrukh Arjumand of the Special Central FIA Court adjourned till July 26 the hearing of the Toshakhana-II case in which Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are key accused.
During the hearing held inside a courtroom in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, both Imran and Bushra were presented.
Later, talking to the media outside the prison PTI's Central Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, Imran's sister Aleema Khan and PTI Senator Ali Zafar, stated that the Toshakhana-II trial should be declared null and void, as a closed-door trial is a violation of the Constitution and the law.
They said Imran's sons, Kasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan, have both confirmed their plan to come to Pakistan. They said it was their constitutional right to meet their incarcerated father.
In this regard, a formal constitutional petition is being filed in the Islamabad High Court this week. The purpose of filing the petition is to ensure that the jail authorities have no legal grounds to deny the meeting. The petition is expected to be filed at any time, they added.