ISLAMABAD Imran Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is now serving an imprisonment term for party divisions. The News said on Wednesday that Khan will meet with both factions tomorrow in Adiala jail.
Speaking to media in a courtroom at the Adiala prison, Khan refuted rumors that there was a forward bloc inside the PTI and emphasized that there were no significant divisions within the party.
The PTI founder’s comments coincided with internal upheaval within the erstwhile ruling party, as leaders have been criticizing one another. Earlier this week, the PTI core committee also denied that there was ever a rift.
Omar Ayub, the party’s secretary general, resigned from his position last month in order to concentrate on his responsibilities as the opposition leader in the National Assembly.
Ayub’s departure coincided with rumors of division within the PTI. According to sources who spoke with Geo News, 27 MPs who supported the PTI and belonged to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) discussed leaving the National Assembly to express their disapproval of the party’s leadership.
Of the 27, the insiders said that 21 of its MPs had made suggestions about forming a forward bloc in response to the incapacity of the party’s top leadership to achieve the release of the party founder from prison.
The PTI’s parliamentary party, however, has subsequently rejected Ayub’s resignation. This was followed by a request from the party’s core committee for him to rescind his decision to leave the party’s coveted position.
