Imran Khan will not back down from stance, says Salman Akram Raja

RAWALPINDI: PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has said that Barrister Salman Safdar’s meeting with the party founder was a requirement of the system, but there is no possibility of any breakthrough from it. Speaking to the media at the Factory Checkpost on Adiala Road, he said the founder was not ready to back down under any circumstances and was standing firm on his stance.

He said anyone who retreats from the PTI founder’s stance will see his politics end.

The founder’s meeting and legal aspects

According to Salman Akram Raja, the founder’s cases are not moving forward, so the meeting was necessary. Salman Safdar had told the court that he would not present arguments until he had met the founder. He said the meeting was not a favour to the party but a requirement of the system.

The meeting discussed the legal aspects as well as the health of the founder and Bushra Bibi. Whatever legal course is available will be adopted after this, he said. Salman Safdar said the founder was in high spirits in jail and that his body language and morale were remarkable.

Salman Akram Raja said this was a meeting of a legal nature, while the meeting the party is talking about is political. Until a political meeting takes place, matters will not move forward. He said he had no hope from Salman Safdar’s meeting and that the intentions also did not look good, although Salman Safdar had informed him before the meeting.

He said the founder is not regularly getting newspapers and television, but Bushra Bibi has access to them. The founder did not express disappointment over political matters or over the fall of the government in KP.

The party and alliances

He said there were no signs of a forward bloc in the party, but no possibility could be ruled out. If anyone in the party harbours ill intent in mind or heart, it will come out.

Social media accounts abroad have no connection with the party or its policy. According to him, only the official spokesperson or his team issues statements on party policy. He said he was not speaking against social media accounts abroad, but they are not subordinate to the party.

On Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he said, “We are not calling him a saviour.” The party has no formal alliance with him, but political parties are moving together under the Tahaffuz-e-Aeen-e-Pakistan platform. Maulana has his own politics and also has street power, and the party has nothing to do with that, he said.

He said, “In a system of oppression, why should we reject anyone who walks with us? We neither depend on anyone nor are we obliged to anyone. We will not accept any chief ministership for which we have to give up our principles.”

Talks and drone strikes

Calling the talks with the government a sham, Salman Akram Raja said the government had made all preparations in advance. The talks did not fail because of the party. The party could not give the government a blank cheque for military operations against terrorism.

He said, “We cannot allow drone strikes and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Thousands of people are missing in this country, thousands are displaced in Khyber district and hundreds of thousands are living in tent camps. Drones struck mosques, weddings and seminaries in KP. It is a matter for debate that terrorists’ drones have also been shot down during military operations.”

According to the PTI leader, he had proposed in the talks that a meeting of political elders and political parties be called within 72 hours. After imposing governor’s rule, the government itself called that same meeting.

He said terrorism must be fought, but the innocent must not be displaced or killed. Talks with the government can take place at any time, but the meeting was their own need, and the party is always ready to talk on the level of principle, he said.