Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Sensing the popular support growing for Imran Khan, imprisoned since August and fighting dozens of court cases, the US Ambassador to Pakistan is reported to have met the former Prime Minister in a Rawalpindi jail to reset America’s relations with him, the media reported on Tuesday.
Apparently, the US wants to keep its option open in case Imran’s political outfit—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)– forms a majority after the scheduled February 2024 elections to the National Assembly and is trying to woo Khan back. Last year, the then PM accused Washington of ‘plotting’ his ouster from power in April 2022 because of his growing ‘proximity’ to Russia, among other reasons.
Imran cannot contest the coming parliamentary elections himself but his truncated party can.
But even within his party, confusion remains as to whether he will continue to lead it. PTI is set to conduct intra-party elections within the 20-day time frame set by the Election Commission to retain the ‘bat’ as its electoral symbol, ahead of the General Elections scheduled for February 8 next year. Khan, a former cricket superstar, has been synonymous with his ‘bat’ symbol.
The main opposition party dismissed a statement by one of its own senior leaders, who claimed that the jailed former PM would not contest for the chairman’s post in the upcoming intra-party polls.
Barrister Gohar Khan will be the candidate for PTI’s chairmanship, Senior Vice-President Sher Afzal Marwat said on Tuesday, hours after Khan, 71, reportedly decided against retaining the top post because of legal hurdles as the party heads towards internal polls, Geo News reported.
However, the PTI claimed there were no plans for Imran to step down from his position. In a statement on X, it strongly rebutted the “speculation” over the election of a new party chairman.
“Discussions are ongoing on all the important issues regarding the holding of intra-party elections,” it added.
But Marwat, the party’s new face in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stuck to his guns: “Whatever I have said in my media talk about the intra-party election is correct. The decisions were taken by the PTI chairman in the presence of Senator Ali Zafar, Barrister Gohar Umair Niazi, and myself,” he said on Wednesday.
If true, the development will mark an end to Khan’s tenure at the key position since the party’s formation more than two decades back, the Pakistani media commented.
As Khan’s predecessor and three-time PM, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who returned to Islamabad last month after five years of self-exile in London, prepares to contest the next parliamentary polls, his Pakistan Muslim League (N) party is finding it increasingly difficult to match the growing popularity of and sympathy for the former cricketer, even if he is in jail and not able to contest polls.