ISLAMABAD: A group of Pakistani doctors and businessmen based in the US has met a senior official in Islamabad and PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan at the Adiala Jail.
These are part of an attempt by the PTI and its sympathizers to get some relief for the jailed Imran Khan. These back-channel efforts are separate from the negotiations that took place between PTI and the concerned quarters. Although back-channel talks between PTI and the establishment are expected to resume, no progress has been made so far, according to a report in Geo TV.
Some PTI leaders who have been in talks with the establishment in the past are trying to revive back-channel talks. The military establishment has consistently insisted that it will not talk to politicians and political parties as it is the job of political parties to talk to each other about politics and issues related to it.
A key official of US-based doctors and businessmen and a source aware of the talks with Imran Khan said the success of such efforts depends on PTI’s social media and Imran Khan’s attitude. Khan and his party’s social media and foreign chapters of the party, especially in the US and UK, are constantly targeting the army and its high command.
Moreover, false news is being spread. Contacts were made with influential world capitals, including Washington and London, to press Islamabad and GHQ for Imran Khan’s release.
The PTI’s second-rung leadership, which itself blames the party’s social media and its foreign chapters for problems for the party and its top leadership, knows that things cannot improve for the party and its jailed leader unless the PTI stops its social media and Imran Khan from criticizing the army establishment and its high command.
Now that a delegation of Pakistani doctors and businessmen living in the United States has met with a key official and Imran Khan, it will be interesting to see if the PTI founder and his party’s social media show some restraint. The most important issue for PTI and its sympathizers is to get relief for Khan.
