ISLAMABAD—On Wednesday, Senator Ali Zafar of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that party head Imran Khan would not be running in intra-party elections. He also said that the former prime minister had personally chosen Barrister Gohar Ali Khan for the job.
The PTI leader’s statement comes a day after lawyers who met with PTI chief Imran Khan stated that he had decided not to run for chairman in the intra-party polls. This caused an awkward deep freeze across the party. Soon after, the claim was thrown out by a party spokesman who said that no decision had been made.
A few hours before Zafar’s statement, Sardar Latif Khosa, the top counsel for the PTI, shot down rumors that someone other than Imran would become party chairman.
Barrister Zafar told the media today that the former prime minister will not run for office again until his conviction and subsequent disqualification in the Toshakhana cases are removed.
Zafar said that a politician couldn’t be kicked out of office for not declaring Toshakhana gifts. He also said that a final decision had not yet been made, even though the PTI leader’s conviction had been put on hold.
Zafar said that the party needed to find out if the ECP was going to do anything “illegal” or “unconstitutional” that could cause the party to lose its well-known bat sign or have its candidates’ nominations revoked.
The head of the PTI said that he and Imran had talked about all the options. The lawyer for Imran told them that he didn’t want to give the ECP any “excuse” for taking away the bat sign or canceling party nominations for the next general election.
“The people are on our side. When the polls come around, we will win. I’d like to vote in the general election. I don’t care about polls within my own party. I’d like the Toshkahana case to be over as soon as possible. “When it is decided, I will run for chairmanship in the party elections,” Imran was quoted as saying by the leader of the PTI.
Based on what the former premier told them to do, Zafar said that the party was having elections within the party.
What about the “caretaker chairman”? The PTI senator said that several well-known people’s names were brought up. But they had all been given regular jobs in the party, and it would not have been polite to give them temporary jobs. That’s why we need someone who won’t cause a fuss and can help with this caretaker job… this short-term arrangement, he said.
Zafar said that Barrister Gohar was a good choice for this “temporary arrangement” as the guy who was nominated for chairman.
Zafar said that the appointment of Barrister Gohar meant that this was not a “minus-one formula” or a coup. “He is Imran Khan’s own choice,” he said.
“Imran Khan is PTI and PTI is Imran Khan.” With out Imran Khan, the PTI is nothing. “Imran Khan will always be the party leader, it doesn’t matter who the chairman is on paper,” he said.
When Gohar spoke to the reporters, he thanked Imran. He said he was “speechless” that the head of the PTI chose him instead of him. Gohar, who was crying, said, “I will take care of the job and give it to Imran when he gets back.”
The race for manager
A rather surprising event happened the day before: former prime minister Imran Khan was said to have chosen Barrister Gohar Khan as his candidate for chairman in the intra-party polls. Khan has been chairman of the party since it was founded more than twenty years ago.
Early in the day, there was a lot of confusion and conflict in the party’s talks, and there were cracks in the leadership that had never been seen before in terms of who would be in charge of the spot.
A group of lawyers, including Senator Ali Zafar, Barrister Gohar, Umair Niazi, and Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, met the current PTI chairman at Adiala jail earlier in the afternoon. They later told the media that Imran Khan had decided that he would not be running for party chairman.
Marwat told the media that Imran would not be running for party head because he was convicted in the Toshakhana case and then disqualified. He said that Imran can’t do it because of the legal issues.
“Khan himself has chosen that he will not be running for chairman of the PTI,” he said, adding that both sides agreed that Khan would be made chairman of the PTI again once the court cases are over.
Later, though, the party spokesperson said in a statement that it wasn’t true and that no choice had been made yet to take Imran Khan’s name out of the election or put forward any other leader for the position.
The spokesperson denied Marwat’s claim that Imran didn’t take part as chairman in the intra-party elections that were held on the orders of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). They also said that an official statement would be made when the party leadership decided on all important issues, such as the holding of the elections, their date, how they will be run, and who will be chosen as candidates.