What prompted Imran Khan to boycott joint sitting of parliament?

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan decided to boycott the joint session of the parliament after the media team of Prime Minister’s House “twisted and fabricated” the statement by PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi “in a bid to provide legitimacy to PM Nawaz Sharif” in the recently held All Parties Conference (APC), Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.

A senior leader of PTI told this scribe that the statements attributed to Qureshi and subsequent admission by Privatisation Commission Chairman Mohammad Zubair that he got the news tickers running from the PM House media cell convinced Khan not to attend the joint session, as PTI had already extended support to the Kashmir policy twice.

“During the recently held party’s core committee meeting, which lasted for around four long hours, Imran Khan briefed the party’s top leadership: he had fears that the PM was under immense public pressure over the Panama Leaks and he needed the parliament’s support to get out of the crisis,” the PTI leader said.

He added that during the marathon meeting, Khan told his comrades that PTI was in a catch-22 situation.

“We would have faced criticism whether we attended the joint sitting or not. If I had attended the meeting and made a fiery speech, the media cell being run by Maryam Nawaz would’ve distorted my speech, as if I damaged the Kashmir cause. But, if I had made a soft statement, they would have used it to provide legitimacy to Nawaz Sharif,” the source quoted Imran Khan as telling his team.

“Khan told the meeting that he stands by the Kashmiris and Pakistan Army, but feared that the government’s media managers would twist and fabricate his statements. Khan said: ‘I am not a hypocrite and I couldn’t lie to this nation’,” the source added.

The source, however, admitted that before Khan’s briefing to the core committee, the opinion was in favour of attending the parliamentary session.

“Before Khan’s speech, the voting was 70 per cent in favour of attending the session. But after the speech, the majority of the participants endorsed the decision not to attend the session,” the source added.

Talking exclusively to Pakistan Today, PTI MNA from Kohat, Shehryar Khan Afridi, confirmed the information and said that Imran Khan took the decision after Qureshi’s statement was ‘twisted.’

“The APC was used by the PM House not to raise Kashmir issue and the violation of LoC ceasefire by India, but the meeting was used to provide legitimacy to Nawaz Sharif. This prompted PTI chief to boycott the joint session,” he added.

Afridi says that there was no need for the joint session of the parliament, while all the parliamentary leaders had already extended support to the government on Kashmir issue.

“Imran Khan blasted Modi in his Raiwind speech and expressed solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom lovers as well as the valiant armed forces of Pakistan. Later, PTI once again supported the Kashmir issue in the APC. What was the need for the joint sitting?” he argued.

Afridi said that even if the PM had to convene the APC, he should have summoned it before leaving for the UNGA speech.

“I can’t help but ask why the PM only returns to the parliament when he is in a weak position? Why does he not care about the parliament when he is flying high? Why did the PM not turn towards the parliament before? The PML-N government only broke its criminal silence on Kashmir after Burhan Wani made a sacrifice. Before that, Modi was a darling for Nawaz Sharif,” he argued.

The PTI lawmaker also asked why Nawaz Sharif kept a criminal silence over the arrest of RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav in his UNGA speech.

“I would ask: why over 120 Kashmiris had to have died just to make our PM break his criminal silence over Kashmir issue? Why NAP implementation has to be made only after Indian claims of a ‘surgical strike’ in violation of LoC ceasefire?” he concluded.