Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government spokesperson Barrister Saif has revealed that former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Founder Imran Khan was open to shifting the location of the party’s ongoing protest, but Bushra Bibi remained adamant.
Speaking on Samaa TV's show Nadeem Malik Live, Barrister Saif said Imran Khan had agreed to relocate the protest to Sangjani instead of Islamabad’s D-Chowk.
However, Saif claimed, Imran Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, rejected the proposal, who insisted that the protest would not take place anywhere but D-Chowk, as originally planned.
“Bushra Bibi refused to protest anywhere except D-Chowk and played the role of a front-row leader during the protest,” Barrister Saif claimed.
He further said the party had already decided that in the first phase it would march on D-Chowk, claiming the first phase had been successful and now the party had to travel further and decide how long it would stay. "The PTI will announce its next course of action in a day or two," Barrister Saif declared.
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He listed out the party's demands it wanted met in order to end its protest, on the top of which is the release of party Founder Imran Khan. The demands also included an audit of the general elections and withdrawal of the 26th amendment.
"The series of talks was going on since yesterday, but no progress was made. Our demand was that the PTI founder should be released," the KP government spokesperson stressed, adding, however, that Imran Khan's release would be possible through a legal process, "the button of which was in the hands of the government".
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated that a 'hidden hand' sitting in the background was controlling the PTI, and that hand is the reason behind all the riots. Talking to the media in Islamabad, the minister claimed the PTI leadership wanted to talk, but this one 'hidden hand' is dominating the narrative. "The intentions of this secret hand are different," he maintained.
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Naqvi had also said that the authorities had opened the roads to Sangjani and tried to avoid any spectacle on the streets of Islamabad, adding that the teargas shelling was a disgrace for the country. "These people are bringing teargas shells with them," he alleged.
The minister stated that on Monday, there were a total of four martyrdoms -- a Punjab Police official and three Rangers, while five policemen were in critical condition. He further declared that the Islamabad IGP had been given the authority to deal with the situation the way he wanted.
"There are about 2,000 trained people, their backgrounds have been checked," he alleged.
