Reports of rift surfacing: Debate rages in PTI on KP CM’s claims

PESHAWAR: A heated debate is going on within Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ranks regarding the dramatic entry and speech of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in the provincial assembly.

PTI leaders are reluctant to believe Gandapur’s version of events. Reports of internal conflicts within the party are also surfacing, and party workers have started scrutinising the entire incident.

The workers involved in the protest have refused to accept Gandapur’s stance. According to party sources, Gandapur remained missing for 30 hours and suddenly appeared in the assembly, where he delivered a powerful speech but failed to present his viewpoint effectively.

Similarly, in the past, he had disappeared for eight hours and had been unable to arrive on time for rallies in Lahore and Rawalpindi, raising many questions. A party leader told The News where Gandapur spent those 30 hours is not of significant concern, but on the day of the protest, he left the workers alone and went to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House while the workers faced police batons and teargas.

Nearly a thousand workers have been arrested. He added if Gandapur had led the rally to D-Chowk, the workers would have stayed with him, but they were left at the mercy of the government.

On social media, PTI workers are scrutinising Gandapur’s story, pointing out several inconsistencies for which no answers are available. Sources close to Ali Amin Gandapur claim that he had reached D-Chowk, and after that, he went to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House.

However, the police and Rangers suddenly raided the house, forcing him to go into hiding. When the opportunity arose, he managed to escape from there to reach Peshawar. The government sources say, there are no differences within the party. The party remains united under the leadership of Imran Khan, and the struggle will continue until his release.

Meanwhile, Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif while talking in Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Saath’ said if there was any sense of danger from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), it had vanished. The people who reached D Chowk were very few in number. They were not the people who came with the rally, they were residents of Islamabad. When the rumor spread that Ali Amin Gandapur had escaped, the little courage among the PTI workers also disappeared.

Its poet is Ahmed Farhad who was in jail and a singer with whom he had a bitter conversation. Social media is full of these news. When Gandapur disappeared from the rally, Khawaja Asif said that Gandapur was doing wrong and they left in a car boot.

Beyond Minal restaurant, the road to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa starts, from there Gandapur entered Haripur and stayed at Omar Ayub’s house for the night and got ready in the morning and reached the KP Assembly.

Khawaja Asif said in his view Ali Amin believed that he had played the role of Mullah Jat, so it was enough and then he fulfilled the duties of his position as the chief minister. Punjab PTI leadership did not come in the protest and the workers were not in a huge number and they brought people from KP and there were policemen in plain clothes and the Afghan people and they were given military training.

Defence minister said that the PTI workers who were abusing them till yesterday are now abusing them now. Imran Khan will not take any action against Ali Amin as he has to have space with the establishment so that the chain has started from him and maybe through Ali Amin Imran Khan tender apology.

He said that on the issue of Palestine, all parties came except PTI, although they were invited. Neither PTI nor Ali Amin condemned the situation that had happened in the last ten months and the representatives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government did not even go to offer the funeral of the martyred.