PTI founder Imran Khan categorically rejected on Thursday helping PPP scion Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari form a government in the Centre post-February 8 elections. The former premier\u2019s remarks come a day after Bilawal, vying for the post of prime minister, in an interview with an international news agency, said he \u201cpreferred forming a government with independent candidates\u201d. Bilawal\u2019s strategy is informed by the PTI\u2019s current circumstances that have rendered its candidates incapable of contesting elections under the party\u2019s name or using its electoral symbol. The apex court, on January 13, set aside the Peshawar High Court\u2019s (PHC) January 10 order, effectively depriving the PTI of its iconic election symbol of a cricket bat in a major blow to the former ruling party ahead of the February 8 general elections. This leaves the party with the option of having its candidates contest upcoming elections as independents. Informally addressing the media following the cypher case hearing at Adiala jail, where the ex-PM is currently incarcerated, Imran asked Bilawal to \u201cask those for help with whom you remained in government for 16 months\u201d. Referring to the PPP and PML-N who along with 13 other parties formed the last PDM coalition government, the former premier said these parties are against each other today, \u201cbut they are all on the same page from the inside\u201d. He said that \u201cthe establishment has all the control\u201d. \u201cTalks should be held with those who have the power,\u201d Imran said, saying that he has been stressing for a long time now that elections should be held fairly and transparently. \u201cPeople should be able to bring in whoever they want. Political engineering has caused the country a lot of damage,\u201d the ex-premier said as he complained about his party\u2019s supporters and candidates being arrested. \u201cHow are surveys being conducted when the PTI is not present in the field?\u201d Imran questioned. The premier boasted of his party\u2019s support among the masses, stating that it had become difficult for \u201cthem\u201d \u201cto control the PTI\u201d. \u201cThe establishment and Election Commission helped them in winning by-elections too,\u201d he said, adding that all the parties have united, and are yet unable to defeat the PTI. Lamenting the \u2018treatment\u2019 being meted out to the party, Imran said \u201cour corner meetings are raided by police\u201d. He urged all party members \u201cin hiding\u201d to step out and support the party\u2019s electoral campaign, kickstarting this Sunday. Commenting on the May 9 riot cases registered against him and party supporters, the PTI founding chairman said that \u201cwe did not break any law\u201d. \u201cThere were no protests even when I got shot,\u201d Imran said, referring to the November 2022 assassination attempt on him during the Wazirabad jalsa. Cypher trial Referring to the cypher trial, the former premier said it was not an open trial as the media and his well-wishers were not allowed to participate. During the hearing, the prosecutor informed the judge that their witnesses have yet to appear and be cross-examined in the case. Earlier, speaking to the presiding judge during the hearing of the \u00a3190 million case, Imran said the ‘drama’ was being staged for February 8, and maintained that if this was how things will be done, then they should be done after the poll date. Imran further said that all cases should be kept up to date, adding that the Toshakhana case involving former president Zardari and three-time premier Nawaz was fixed for February 13, while hearings of his Toshakhana case were being conducted \u2018daily\u2019. “An eight-year-old case was fixed for Feb 13 while a four-year-old case is heard every day,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PTI founder Imran Khan categorically rejected on Thursday helping PPP scion Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari form a government in the Centre post-February 8 elections. The former premier\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13626,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}