ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, the former prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PTI), offered Hamid Khan the job of party head before choosing Barrister Gohar Ali Khan. But people who know what’s going on behind the scenes say that Hamid Khan turned down the offer because he was worried about his age and health.
He instead offered Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a possible replacement for the politician who was jailed. Still, Qureshi’s bid was thrown out because he was in jail. The PTI has been avoiding more legal trouble by doing internal party polls that don’t meet the standards set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). These new details come at a time when they have been facing a lot of legal problems.
The party recently said that Imran Khan would not be running in the intra-party elections because of legal issues. This led to Gohar being nominated as a temporary replacement. But the move, which had never been done before and added to rumors about the “minus-Imran formula,” happened at a time when the party seemed to be under a lot of stress.
In an interview with The Express Tribune, Shoaib Shaheen, a spokesman for the PTI, confirmed that Imran Khan did give Hamid Khan the position of chairman, but Khan turned it down. He also put an end to any rumors that party leaders were fighting over Barrister Gohar’s nomination and emphasized that the party was united.
“My point was that the nomination shouldn’t have been made public before the Islamabad High Court heard Imran Khan’s request to put the first court’s decision in the Toshakhana case on hold.”
Thursday was the day of the meeting. The IHC division bench has not yet made a ruling. A lawyer named Barrister Gohar Khan was named by Senator Ali Zafar on Wednesday.Shoaib Shaheen explained that they didn’t choose any other high-level politician as party head because they didn’t want it to look like the party had agreed to a “minus-one formula.”
At the same time, Hamid Khan stated that he had dropped out of running for party chairman. He also backed Barrister Gohar Khan’s selection as the new head of the PTI, even though many political leaders are either hiding out or in jail right now.
Hamid Khan hoped that Qazi Faez Isa, the president and chief justice of Pakistan, would protect the constitution and the rule of law in the country. As an interesting side note, Hamid has earlier worked with several bar associations that fought the presidential referral against Justice Qazi Faez Isa during the PTI government. He spoke out against the PTI government’s choice to file a report against Justice Isa, which he said was done at the establishment’s request.
In addition, Hamid Khan wasn’t very close to Imran during the PTI government. But after Imran Khan was removed through the constitutional process, Hamid Khan seemed to become closer to Imran Khan.
Some people in the PTI think that Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, a top lawyer for the PPP, is close with Imran Khan. It’s interesting that Barrister Gohar, who is younger than Aitzaz, still works with him, which has caused some people in the PTI to talk.
Behind the scenes, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan will make the decisions. Hamid said that Gohar was hired to get rid of any legal problems that were stopping the company from using the “Bat” sign. But Shoaib Shaheen said that the work would go on with the help of the PTI core group.
At the moment, lawyers are in charge of the PTI, and many of them are looking for PTI tickets for the future elections. Shoaib Shaheen, Dr. Babar Awan, and Ali Bukhari are some of them who have said they want to run for Islamabad on PTI seats.
Advocate Shair Afzal Marwat is one of the most important people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
Also, people like Salman Akram Raja, Salman Safdar, Uzair Bhandari, and others are actively involved in Imran Khan’s legal issues.
