- Web Desk
- 34 Minutes ago
PTI distances itself from Imran Khan, sisters’ ‘controversial statements’
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- Web Desk
- 46 Minutes ago
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has said that the party distances itself from the recent ‘controversial statements’ made by the party’s founder Imran Khan and his sisters, clarifying that these remarks do not represent the party line and should be considered their personal views.
Talking to the media at the sit-in protest camp outside Adiala jail, Raja said that earlier, when weekly meetings were allowed on Tuesdays, matters would be resolved within a couple of hours.
“Negotiation does not mean pleading. The PTI founder is very clear — he does not want any special facilities for his comfort,” he added.
He said it is the founder’s right to meet his sons, yet despite ongoing legal cases, his daughters are still not being allowed to see him — a situation for which there is no legal or moral justification.
Raja claimed that “the system has now decided to create a spectacle,” adding that barriers are being erected and meetings obstructed. He said certain state elements decided in April that they would not allow any meetings.
He further alleged that visitors are being allowed or barred based on “personal preference rather than law,” saying that only those favoured by the authorities are being permitted while all others are stopped.
Raja said that people visit to show solidarity and the sisters cannot be left alone. “There are thousands, even millions, of accounts that are not under our control. We should not be held responsible for them,” he said.
He said that the remarks made by the PTI founder and his sisters do not reflect the party’s official position. “We are not a censor board; whatever Khan sahib says is conveyed as is,” the PTI secretary general said.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan’s sisters continued to stage a sit-in near Adiala jail after being denied a meeting with him.
Senior party leaders, including PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja and PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Junaid Akbar Khan, also joined the protest.
PTI had made several attempts to secure a meeting with the party founder, but jail authorities refused despite a court order allowing visits on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Last week, however, officials allowed Khan’s sister Uzma Khan to meet him, after which she said he was “absolutely fine.”
In a video message issued earlier today on her way to the Adial jail, Aleema Khan accused the state of violating the law and insisted that PTI had not done anything illegal.
“If they act unlawfully and we follow the law — and if they are considered right and we are considered wrong — then this reflects the true state of our system,” she said.
She said that Imran Khan had not been allowed to meet his personal physician for the past 14 months. “What is the problem in letting a doctor see him?” she questioned.
Aleema Khan further said, “When Nawaz Sharif was in jail, a doctor stayed with him all day and monitored his platelet count — what kind of system is this?”
Later, she stepped out of her vehicle and began marching towards Adiala jail with a large number of party leaders and workers.
She reached the Gorakhpur Market on Adiala Road, about one kilometre southwest of the prison, where police stopped the group.
Sitting near the police barricades, Aleema Khan released another video message.
“This is unconstitutional and illegal,” she said. “Why is Imran Khan being kept in isolation and subjected to distress?”
“They are violating the Constitution and breaking the law,” she added. “We will not leave — whether they beat us or open fire, they can do whatever they want.”
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan urged authorities to allow meetings with Imran Khan, saying it would “improve the situation.”
“We have a right to be here, and there is also a court order,” he told reporters.
He said, “We want to do many things, but they are not in our control. But if meetings are allowed — if he is allowed to meet his wife — the situation will improve.”
Gohar Ali Khan said the country should not be divided, adding that political disagreements should not turn into enmity.
He left the protest site without meeting the PTI founder.
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