Dr Qadri confirms secret London meeting with Imran

LONDON: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri has finally admitted meeting PTI leader Imran Khan in secrecy in London to finalise details of a joint struggle against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government through sit-ins inside Red Zone.
Speaking to a private TV channel, Dr Qadri sensationally revealed that he had met Imran Khan in the first week of June this year but stressed that “no one from the ISI or the military establishment was present in that meeting, and it was between two of us.”
In his interview, Dr Qadri gave away everything to suggest that both Imran Khan and Dr Qadri were brought into an alliance to destabilise the government and that there does actually exist a plot – now known as ‘London Plot’ – aimed at overthrowing the elected government of Nawaz Sharif through a mixture of political street agitation and violence in many formats. Both Imran and Qadri – who now call each other cousin brothers – left Lahore together on August 14 and since then not only their movements and actions have been coordinated but both almost speak language and coordinate their incitement to their followers in turns.
Dr Qadri himself and senior PTI leaders, including Shireen Mazari, had denied that the two had met, but Imran Khan has kept quiet and Javed Hashmi, PTI’s estranged elected president, confirmed a few days ago that Imran Khan had met Dr Qadri to form an alliance and that their meeting was “coordinated and arranged”.
Dr Qadri said that he held talks with Imran Khan in London not on anyone’s “signalling”.“It just happened that I was in London for my party meetings. Chaudhry brothers wanted to meet too, and I told them to be in London around that time, and they came over with their entourage. It just happened that Imran Khan was in London too. We met at a common friend’s place,” Dr Qadri confirmed, adding that leaders from both sides were present but “not the third party”.
The News is aware that this meeting took place at the office of a millionaire British Pakistani real estate tycoon whose one uncle is a PTI provincial assembly member while another close relative is a senior Muslim League leader.
A source who was present in the meeting told The News that Dr Qari and Imran Khan met at the office which is located near Green Park, near Buckingham Palace. “The meeting continued for over two hours and then the two sides left for lunch at a top Park Lane Hotel where a further round of talks was held. More people joined the two here and finalities of the alliance were agreed.”
The source said that a special team from Pakistan had also come in to make sure that both leaders meet each other and that an agreement is reached. Since then, Dr Qadri and Imran Khan remained in touch directly and through aides and ensured full cooperation to each other, said the source.
“Our meeting was held at a business office in Central London, it was not a five star hotel. Chaudhry brothers were not even aware that meeting took place, some common friends brought us together. There was no exchange of direct calls or any text messages for that meeting. It all happened through friends,” Dr Qadri said and effectively endorsed the allegations made by Javed Hashmi that senior PTI leadership was alarmed that Imran Khan had struck an alliance with Dr Qadri. Hashmi has said that Imran Khan told him and PTI that military will help him come into power and that he was allegedly asked by the establishment to form alliance with Dr Qadri and have Sheikh Rasheed on board too.
“There is no harm in meeting. During my London meeting with Imran Khan, we talked generally about the movement and how to move forward, Dr Qadri said evasively, without going into details.
He defended his decision of earlier denying meeting Imran Khan and then going quiet about it by saying that it was neither “farz nor wajib” to talk about meeting in London with the PTI leader.
Some people have tried to make a “fitna” out of London meeting and painted it as some kind of “London plan”. Dr Qadri also said that he and Imran Khan were allies and proud and will decide to continue sitting in Red Zone or going home through “consultations” as “our aims are the same, and we are in coordination with each other.”Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rasheed has said that from day one he has been coordinating between Imran Khan and Dr Qadri.