LAHORE: Adviser to Prime Minister on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that Imran Khan will not be allowed to lay a siege to the federal capital and that dialogue with the PTI is possible only without any preconditions.

Talking to the media at the Governor House here on Monday, he said Imran Khan would be allowed to stage a protest demonstration in Islamabad only after deciding its parameters and with the assurance that neither state institutions would be attacked nor thoroughfares would be closed.

He said if Imran Khan wanted to create a chaotic situation in Islamabad, he must rest assured that those days had gone when there was a practice to lay siege to any area.

“Now it is time to make democratic struggle,” he said adding, “we are constitutionally bound to employ all legal options for foiling the designs of laying a siege to the federal capital or forcibly occupying state institutions there.”

He recalled that when Imran Khan was in power, the opposition faced political victimisation but said that no such policy would be adopted by the incumbent coalition government.

About the Toshakhana case, Mr Kaira said that every elected representative has to declare its assets with the Election Commission and if any member fails to do so, then his membership is suspended until compliance.

He said the ECP disqualified Imran Khan for mis-declaration and concealment of assets as per law. He said gifts which Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif took from Toshakhana were still in their personal use, and they had also not concealed those gifts, while Imran Khan had submitted wrong affidavits in the ECP about the gifts.

Selling any gift was not good morally, he said but Imran Khan made money amounting to almost Rs100 million by selling the gifts and also did not pay tax on the profit.

Answering a question, he said that dialogue with Imran Khan could be held but without any preconditions.

He recalled that when on the opposition benches they had been making talks offers to the PTI only to be taunted as seeking NRO. He said that only a fascist would refuse to go into dialogue.

He told a questioner that the government was not afraid of Imran but of the situation the PTI chairman wished to create in the country.

The adviser said the government would take up the matter of the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif with the Kenyan government at the highest level for an inquiry into the incident. He strongly condemned the incident.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022