F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s district and session court has acquitted the former PM and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other PTI leaders accused in a case registered at Abpara police station.
The court announced the reserved verdict on the acquittal pleas filed by PTI founder Imran Khan and Judicial Magistrate Yasir Mehmood acquitted Imran Khan, PTI leaders including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Sheikh Rashid, Shehryar Afridi, Faisal Javed, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Ali Nawaz Awan and Asad Qaiser.
Sardar Masroof Khan and Ansar Kiyani representing Imran Khan, Sheikh Rashid and others presented the arguments in the case. It is pertinent to note that Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood, Faisal Javed and others booked for protest in Abpara police station against Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision.
Meanwhile, days after differences between multiple factions of the former ruling party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) became stark with open criticism of one and other, party founder Imran Khan, in an apparent attempt to clear the air, denied claims of any cracks in his party. “There are neither major differences among the party leaders nor is there any forward bloc,” the former prime minister said.
The PTI founder, however, conceded the division within the ranks of the PTI by stating that he would talk to both groups of the party in the upcoming meeting on July 4. Speaking to reporters in a makeshift court inside Adiala Jail, where he and his wife were presented for proceedings in the 190 million corruption reference in which former first lady got bail, he said questions were being asked on transparency of Feb 8 elections in both local and international media, adding that the recent US resolution was a case in point.
Asked if he considered the US resolution an ‘interference’ in internal matters of Pakistan like cipher, he said there was a difference in raising questions on electoral transparency and ‘threatening’ a regime change. He also lambasted the government for rebuffing the resolution, insisting that it was high time to look inwards instead of pointing fingers at someone.
He also took potshots at the government for making people’s lives miserable by burdening them with endless taxes. He stressed that only a fresh and transparent election with a trustworthy government backed by public mandate could help turn the corner of the economy, insisting that economy would flounder otherwise. Khan also whined about the treatment meted out to him by saying that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was allowed to meet party leaders regularly in jail whereas he was not even given a blank paper.
