ISLAMABAD: In a bid to ramp up pressure on the government through his ongoing accountability drive, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has postponed his plans to proceed on Haj this year.

Sources privy to the development told Dawn that the PTI chairman had been advised against going for the pilgrimage at a time when his movement was in a high gear and his absence from the country, even if for a few days, would send the wrong signal.

“Although there will not be much political activity around Eid, we cannot afford to have the party chairman missing from the scene for so long,” a senior PTI leader said.

But PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haq told Dawn that while Mr Khan’s Haj plans were discussed, they were never finalised. “I’ve known for six days now that the chairman has decided not to go for Haj this year,” he said.

When asked if Mr Khan had changed his plans due to the political situation, Mr Haq said it was the chairman’s personal decision.

In background discussions, a majority of PTI leaders said that Mr Khan was needed more inside the country than anywhere else.

While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is often criticised for his frequent international travels, the PTI chairman also regularly visits his two sons in the UK.

For Mr Haq, foreign trips undertaken in a personal capacity are entirely different from wasting the national ex­­chequer’s resources on the state-funded trips of top government functionaries.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2016