ISLAMABAD: Amid reports of Minus-Imran formula presented by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) defectors Fawad Chaudhry and others, sources in the former ruling party said that the party’s senior leaders on Wednesday rejected the proposal, saying that the Minus-Imran formula can’t be accepted.
An informed source told Pakistan Today that Fawad Chaudhry, Imran Ismail and Mahmood Moulvi had held talks with Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Adyala Jail and urged him to agree to Minus-Imran formula to help save democratic setup in the country.
The source added that Fawad and his colleagues who left the PTI also contacted party leaders including Hammad Azhar, Asad Umar, Asad Qaisar and others and urged them to agree to their formula.
However, the sources said that none of the PTI leaders agreed to the formula and told the defectors that only Imran Khan would take any decision on the matter. Asad Qaisar even said that Fawad Chaudhry didn’t contact him.
“No politics without Imran Khan!,” wrote former information minister Farrukh Habib on social media blogging site, Twitter.
PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan distanced from Fawad Chaudhry and others, saying that rumours of negotiations with PTI are being spread by some people who have already left the party.
“It is clarified that a committee has already been constituted to negotiate which shall do so with the permission of chairman Imran Khan. This was done to talk to those people in power who have pushed the country to the brink of collapse,” he added.
He further said that one fails to understand the need for negotiating with those who have already left and are no longer part of the PTI. He concluded by saying that such rumours will not give any credibility to those people who displayed a humiliating paucity of character.
Dr Babar Awan also took to Twitter to reject the proposal of Minus-Imran.
“Minus-Imran means Minus-People of Pakistan. Neither will people allow to minus Imran, nor Imran will allow to minus people of Pakistan. ‘Imran Factor’ is the name of the struggle of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. Rest are the stories the people have heard time and again. Neither there is a space for a King’s Party nor it would have any future,” concluded Babar Awan.
PTI leader Hammad Azhar said that only party chief Imran Khan will make the final decision regarding any “solution or advice by a friend”.
“I am a worker of Chairman Imran Khan and an office-bearer of the PTI. If any friend wants to suggest any solution or give advice, only Imran Khan will make the final decision,” Hammad said in a tweet, referring to a proposal shared by Fawad Chaudhry and others.
PTI senior leader Asad Qaiser strongly rejected Fawad Chaudhry’s claim and said he did not have any contact with him. In a strong reaction to the media reports, Qaisar said he has no contact with party defector Fawad Chaudhry.
Zain Qureshi, the son of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, also rebuffs media impression given on his father’s meeting with PTI defectors.
Strongly rejecting the media impression given on his father’s meeting with party defectors at the Adiala Jail, Zain Qureshi said: “Makhdoom sahib is the Vice Chairman of the PTI and is the name of an ideology. We stand with the ideology of Tehreek-e-Insaf and Imran Khan.”
Zain also shared a short video on Twitter, featuring his father’s association with Imran Khan over the past few decades. Zain added that his father has only done politics of principles and service not position and greed.
Zain Qureshi made it clear that Qureshi was with Imran Khan yesterday and today. The statement comes after former PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry, Imran Ismail and Mahmood Baqi Moulvi said they had contacted and held talks with the former and present leadership of the party, including Hammad Azhar.
