Imran Khan refuses to attend APC, claims Asad Umar

F.P. Report

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan has decided against attending the All Parties Conference (APC) convened by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Feb 7 (Tuesday) to discuss ways to overcome the current national challenges.

It was revealed by PTI Secretary General Asad Umar in a media talk outside the Lahore High Court (LHC) where he had come to attend hearing of his petition seeking announcement of date for elections in Punjab.

“How we can sit with the government when it is violating the Constitution, registering sedition cases against us and arresting our people,” the former planning minister said.

The PTI leader also accused the government of deliberately creating confusion in holding elections, adding that Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman was not ready to give a date for elections in the province. He hoped that the election date would be decided by Thursday.

A day earlier, PM Shehbaz announced that he would hold the APC for which all the leading political leaders had been sent invitations. The prime minister also invited PTI Chairman Imran Khan to attend the conference. Federal Minister Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, a former speaker of the National Assembly, contacted PTI leaders Asad Qaiser and former defence minister Pervez Khattak to convey the invitation to Mr Khan for the key huddle.

The meeting has been called days after over 100 people, most of them police officials, were martyred and many others injured in a terrorist attack on a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines. A suicide bomber, who managed to enter the red zone in guise of police official, blew himself up in the mosque. The blast was so powerful that a part of the mosque caved in, trapping several people under the rubble.