Imran Khan’s party looking to 'bridge gap' with establishment, as top leadership behind bars: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 26 (ANI): Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) whose top leadership is behind bars, is looking for a rapprochement between the establishment and the party chief, The News International reported on Saturday.
Notably, the top leadership of PTI including deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Pervez Elahi are all in custody on different corruption charges.
In this scenario, the second-tier leaders of PTI are seriously discussing ways and means to get the party out of the present situation where it is in a direct confrontation-like situation with the establishment.
The News International reported citing a PTI source, “there is also discussion within the party that continuing confrontation between the PTI and the establishment will neither serve the party nor the institution or the country”.
The source said that “The PTI wants the establishment to reconsider its present policies towards the party and in return a guarantee can be given to the institutions about Khan softening his stance”.
Senior PTI leader and spokesman Sadaqat Ali Abbasi said the party is ready to bridge the gap between the institutions and the PTI chief in the best interest of Pakistan and its people. He said that in the present scenario, it is in the national interest to resolve the differences between the two, The News International reported.
The PTI is also ready to be a part of any national dialogue for the holding of fair and free elections. Abbasi said that depriving the PTI, which he insists is the largest political party in the country, of the political process is not in the interest of any institution.
“We value the importance of the institution and for that reason do not want any rift between the institution and the people of Pakistan, for the national cause, the people and the institution should not look at confronting each other,” The News International quoted Abbasi as saying.
He further said that in order to ensure political and economic stability in the country, the PTI is not shy of sitting with any political party or institution. Instead, he added that in the present situation, there is a dire need for a national dialogue to take the country out of the present constitutional, political and economic mess.
The News International further cited another PTI leader, on condition of not being named, that in a recent core committee meeting of the party, “it was discussed that the PTI leaders who are presently in hiding should come out and face the cases. It was discussed if they do not face the cases now, they won’t be able to contest the elections”.
Notably, The PTI’s core committee was reconstituted after massive post-May 9 desertions from the party. However, the new core committee members’ names were never disclosed.
Before his arrest, the PTI chief had conveyed to all the concerned about their inclusion in the core committee with the direction not to make public its members' names.
However, Khan did not nominate any of his leaders, including Qureshi, who was later also arrested in the cipher case, as acting head of the party. It was left for the core committee to make collective decisions.
But, it is not clear if the PTI core committee got the party chairman's approval it try for a rapprochement between him and the establishment, The News International reported. (ANI)