PTI not on the same page over Imran Khan's X account handling

After facing a strong wave of criticism against a controversial video shared on former prime minister Imran Khan’s official X handle, leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) gave contradictory statements while clarifying position of the incarcerated party founder.

Commenting on the questionable X (formerly Twitter) post, the party’s lawmaker Ali Muhammad Khan claimed on Friday that Imran Khan was unaware of the post and decided to “personally approve” social media content in future.

The PTI lawmaker has dissociated the incarcerated former premier from the controversial video posted on the latter’s verified X account which drew severe criticism from all quarters, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Ali, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, clarified that Imran's point of view should be taken in a political context. He further said that the former ruling party was neither interested in discussing the 1971 incident or the elements behind it nor it was an appropriate time to recall them.

He went on to say that the Imran-founded party was only urging not to repeat the past mistakes of 1971 to 2018. The lawmaker, however, said that his party would always oppose the establishment’s role in political affairs.

When a journalist questioned the politico of the person behind handling the deposed prime minister's social media account, Ali did not name anyone and said that in future, social media content on the PTI founder’s account would not be published without the latter’s approval.

However, the party seemed confused over the matter as some of its leaders defended Imran's debatable X post.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI's incumbent chairman, said that the video was shared on Imran’s X account in the current political scenario.

On the other hand, PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan first demanded the conducting of a probe and then retracted his statement by saying that he did not watch the video.

Another PTI leader and a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Zain Qureshi claimed during a private channel’s programme that Imran’s social media account was being handled by the party but not anyone from outside.

He also said that the party took approval from the incarcerated PTI founder before posting it to his social media accounts. To a question, Zain confirmed that Imran’s X posts were always shared with his approval and it would be endorsed as the party policy.

Subsequently, the party’s core committee said in a statement today that they rejected the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) probe into Imran’s social media post. It added that the registration of a new case against the PTI founder based on a social media post would be unwarranted.

The controversial X post was attributed to the former premier, which read: "Every Pakistani should study the Hamood ur Rahman Commission Report and get to know who was the true traitor, General Yahya Khan or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman."

Yesterday, the FIA's cybercrime wing decided to initiate action against Imran over his controversial tweet and reached Adiala Jail late Thursday night to question him.

However, the former premier refused to meet the intelligence agency’s anti-cybercrime team and become part of the probe related to his controversial social media post.