- PTI chairman says he is not in contact with former interior minister
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that he is happy that former interior minister and senior Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had the courage to question Maryam Nawaz’s leadership.
“But I am still angry with Chaudhry Nisar,” he in an exclusive interview with ARY News channel, aired on Monday night. The PTI chief maintained that he was not ‘totally’ happy with the former interior minister as he ordered the law enforcers to fire shells at the PTI workers during the party’s 2014 sit-in.
When asked if the PML-N leader is in contact with him, Imran said that so far he has no contact with the former interior minister. Last week, Chaudhry Nisar had said that he could not accept Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, as his political leader.
Commenting on Sunday’s NA-120 by-polls, Imran said that the election was a victory of the Supreme Court as PML-N didn’t get any extra votes and their lead against PTI diminished to a great extent. “If they didn’t get any sympathy vote even in their stronghold, it is a great victory for the judiciary,” he said.
However, he accepted his party’s defeat and said the lead PML-N secured would have been lesser if PTI had started their election campaign a little earlier and would have publicised it. On Sunday, PML-N candidate Begum Kulsoom Nawaz won the by-election for her party’s ‘home seat’ NA-120.
According to unofficial results, Kulsoom Nawaz managed to attain 61,254 votes, while her competitor Dr Yasmin Rashid attained 47,066 votes. Maryam Nawaz described it as people’s verdict against the court decision to disqualify Nawaz Sharif.
