RAWALPINDI: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub said on Thursday they were not allowed to enter the Adiala Jail to meet the party’s founder chairman Imran Khan.
Addressing a press conference off the jail premises here, Ayub said Shibli Faraz, Raoof Hassan, Sheharyar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar kept waiting outside the jail from 1pm to 5pm but they were not allowed to meet Imran. The jail administration told the PTI leaders at 5pm that the high-ups had not permitted their meeting with Khan. He said their meeting was arranged on court orders but IG police did not allow them to meet their leader.
He said some elements wanted to pressurize the PTI lawmakers but he wanted to make it clear that all MNAs were united and will remain part of Imran Khan’s team.
Shibli Faraz said, “We are all elected people but we are being humiliated. We came to meet our leader which was our right.” He said the PTI wanted to seek permission from DC Islamabad for a rally but the local administration didn’t allow them and also arrested PTI leader Amir Mughal. “We have come to the assemblies after fighting elections. Nowadays, some people have been launched and they want to break the party. We all are loyal to our leader Imran Khan and we have no differences.”
MNA Sheharyar Afridi told the media that they were united and will not be divided. “We are Khan’s soldiers and can do anything for him”. MNA Shandana Gulzar rejected reports of differences in the party, terming them baseless. The MNA said had she been angry with the party, she would not have come to the jail to meet with her leader.
Separately, a PTI spokesperson rejected what he called the cruel increase in power tariff by Rs5.72 per unit and called the move economic murder of the poverty-stricken and inflation-weary masses. Reacting to the federal cabinet’s approval of increase in the basic tariff of electricity, the spokesperson said the PTI strongly denounced the exorbitant hike in power tariff, which would further compound the woes of people.
Meanwhile, the party has demanded immediate and unconditional release of Imran Khan from ‘unlawful detention’ in light of the recommendations of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The spokesperson also dubbed the delay in fixing the party’s petition seeking a probe into the February 8 polls fraud a deliberate attempt to cover the election theft, demanding urgent hearing of the plea in the light of the Pattan report.