Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Government and Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) officials rejected on Thursday that PTI founder Imran Khan had awarded Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and government spokesman Barrister Saif the task of negotiating with the establishment.
The denial comes in the midst of widespread speculation about mainstream and social media and claimed that Khan had instructed the KP leadership to “reintroduce” with the establishment during a recent meeting in Rawalpindis Adiala prison.
Barrister Saif, who responded to the reports, said: “No one was assigned a new task to hold negotiations with the establishment of the PTI founder.”
He clarified that the meeting on April 2 between Khan and Gandapur was about governance, terrorism and regional affairs, including the situation in Afghanistan. SAIF added that Khan issued instructions to the KP Chief Minister in connection with administrative affairs.
According to Saif, Khan repeated his attitude not to participate in any conversations to personal advantage. “He would not talk to anyone for personal gains, including securing release from prison,” he said, quoting the former prime minister.
The meeting marked the first interaction between Khan and Gandapur in almost a month and a half lasting over two hours. Discussions reportedly also affected institutional confrontations and criticism aimed at party leadership on social media.
Separately, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had previously rejected allegations of any agreement with the establishment. He said that although the contact had been restored, “Final Negotiations had not even begun,” and described speculation about an agreement as “baseless” and disconnected from earth realities.
By repeating the party line, PTI rejected Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram also the reports and called them “false claims” designed to mislead the public.
“No one went to convince the PTI founder to negotiate,” he told a private news channel and insisted that Khan had no task anyone starting conversations.
Akram criticized the efforts to wipe the facts to political advantage and said that the meeting focused solely on the function and internal party of the KP government. “Gandapur will present KHAN’s directives to the party’s political committee,” he added.
