PM Imran assures JKT group of justice

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Raja Riaz said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured members of the Jahangir Khan Tareen    (JKT) group that no injustice would be done to the ‘estranged’ party leader Jahangir Khan Tareen in his cases.  

Responding to a query about PM Imran’s response to the delegation’s complaints against his special assistant on accountability Shahzad Akbar, Raja Riaz replied that the prime minister had sought time to look into these complaints.   According to insiders, the prime minister rejected the delegation’s request for the formation of a judicial commission on Tareen’s cases. 

Sources said the prime minister asked members of the delegation to repose trust in him instead, assuring that no injustice would be done to the ‘estranged’ PTI leader.   

Earlier, MNAs and MPAs belonging to the JKT group met with Prime Minister Imran Khan and conveyed to him their concerns over what they called ‘unfair’ treatment being meted out to their leader.   

Before that speaking at a consultative meeting of the JKT group, MNA Raja Riaz and others said that the gulf was created between Tareen and PM Imran by design. 

They said despite the fact that Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar had addressed countless pressers, but he failed to prove a single charge against Tareen. They demanded separating the SAPM from ‘estranged’ PTI leader’s case. 

They also called upon PM Imran to distance himself from his non-political advisers, and include those having a political background in his kitchen cabinet.

Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Minister Malik Nauman Ahmad Langrial called Jahangir Khan Tareen PTI’s asset; a man who was still loyal to the party.   He said Tareen’s services for the party were no secret.

“Particularly, his role in the formation of PTI the government is in everybody’s knowledge,” he said, and added, “The ‘excesses’ which are being committed against him now under the nose of PM Imran were not committed even when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was in power.”  

Nazir Ahmad Chohan, MPA, asked PM Imran as to what were the services of his special assistant Shahzad Akbar. “How many party workers does he know?” he asked, and added, “The prime minister is creating a gulf between him and the party loyalists on people like Shahzad Akbar’s asking. Mr. Prime Minister, please bear this thing in mind. These people are not Tareen’s, but your and PTI’s enemies.”  

He further said the kind of statement, which Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had given on Monday, could by no means be described as that given by a party sympathizer. “Qureshi’s political affiliations in the past are no secret,” he said.  

Ajmal Cheema, MPA, said he and other legislators had joined the PTI on Tareen’s insistence.