'PTI wants Fawad not to criticise party leadership'

Amid prevailing internal turmoil and rifts, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has asked former party member Fawad Chauhdry to keep quiet and not criticise the party leadership.

The sources say that, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has stresses onredressal of existing misunderstandings and has asked the former federal minister to not speak against the PTI leadership.

Meanwhile, confirming reaching out to Fawad, senior party leader and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qasier has said that all former leaders have been asked to keep quiet for the time being and not engage in criticism targeting the PTI leadership.

The move comes after PTI incarcerated founder Imran Khan admitted to rifts and grouping within the party and is set to meet "both factions" today in Adia jail.

Speaking to reporters in a courtroom at the Adiala facility, the former PM reports of any forward bloc within the PTI and stressed that there were no major differences within the party.

However, all is not good within the former ruling party's ranks as it has been gripped with internal turmoil with leaders often engaging in public criticism against one another.

In June, sources told Geo News that 27 PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) lawmakers deliberated on the option of resignation from the National Assembly in protest against the party's top leadership.

Of the 27, the insiders had said 21 of its lawmakers hinted at forming a forward bloc over top leadership's inability to secure the release of party founder from jail, the sources added.

Meanwhile, party's Secretary-General Omar Ayub stepped down as secretary-general of the party to focus on his role as National Assembly Opposition Leader instead.

However, both the PTI's core committee and parliamentary party have rejected Ayub's resignation with the former asking him to withdraw his decision to step down from the party's coveted post.

Furthermore, during his interaction with reporters in the court, Khan chose not to respond when asked about whether former Fawad had sent him a meeting message and his continuous criticism of the PTI's current leadership.

Fawad has been overtly critical of the PTI's current leadership and has in fact termed them a hurdle in the jailed PTI founder and other leaders' release from jail due to a lack of political strategy.

On one hand, he has been engaged in tit-for-tat banter with the current PTI leadership, whereas on the other, while speaking on Geo News programme "Naya Pakistan", he has admitted to being "desperate" to rejoin the party.

Meanwhile, party's Information Secretary Raoof Hasan, while speaking on Geo News' programme "Capital Talk" said that Fawad had been expelled from PTI after he joined another party, so he had no right to comment on the party.

Hasan also said that some "touts" were running a narrative against the top PTI leadership on social media, adding there is no impression in the PTI that those who left the party should be brought back.

The majority opinion within the party was that those who left the party should not be brought back, he claimed.