Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chapter President Junaid Akbar has warned of a nationwide campaign against the reigning coalition, mentioning the government’s lack of obligation to resolve political tensions through dialogue.
In a speech with a local TV news channel, Akbar said the opposition’s willingness to negotiate was wrongly interpreted as a sign of weakness. His remarks came after PTI jumped over the fourth round of negotiations with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-LED coalition government earlier on Tuesday, which effectively stopped the negotiation process.
PTI and the ruling alliance began conversations last December to lower the political temperature in the country. However, the dialogue process derived when PTI accused the government of not forming legal commissions of investigating May 9, 2023, protests and crashes on PTI protests in Islamabad on November 26, 2024.
Akbar, who was recently elected to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, who is not set up, admitted that although PTI aimed to negotiate, the current lane suggested a stalemate.
He confirmed the PTI’s intention to give up the negotiations in favor of street protests. “Yes, certainly,” he said, when asked if the party would now seek solutions to the streets.
He announced a series of protest plans, including demonstrations at the district level on February 8 against alleged voting rigs and a large-scale protest on Islamabad’s D-Chowk.
The PTI leader emphasized that this time the party would not participate in negotiations under its street protests. He suggested that significant changes within PTI revealed that the party’s “homeopathic leadership” would be replaced by hardliners after a reorganization planned for May.
He also announced plans to restore the provincial cabinet, where two new members are expected to join Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s team.
Akbar accused the federal government of trying to create departments within PTI and forced partimate members of changing loyalty. “We know who is in contact with whom,” he said, adding that the efforts to destabilize the party had failed.
The PTI leader also claimed that those who left the party originally joined external directives. Akbar expressed optimism about the release of PTI founder Imran Khan this year.
