ISLAMABAD – Imran Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said his party would begin discussions with the government only if the governing coalition agreed to dissolve the assembly and hold elections soon.
During an informal conversation with journalists during his appearance in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for bail in a mutiny case, the former prime minister said he had asked Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Fawad Chaudhry, members of the PTI’s team holding talks with the government, not to proceed if the government insisted on holding elections in September and October.
After the high court granted him bail in the case filed against him for allegedly inciting public dissent against the institution until May 3, he took to Twitter to claim that Islamabad police had taken peaceful PTI workers into custody outside the IHC.
“Our workers were sitting in their vehicles peacefully when ICT police pulled them out and took them away in a brazen display of State oppression.” This is why they want the elections to be postponed; they believe that by then, they will be able to shatter the PTI via fear of incarceration and persecution. “Won’t work,” he tweeted, with a video of police officers detaining members of his party.