MUZAFFARABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will meet the party’s chairman, Imran Khan, on Saturday in what will be the parliamentary party’s first formal meeting with the former prime minister after last year’s elections.

PTI sources told Dawn that the meeting would be held at Mr Khan’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore at 3pm, adding that most of the party members, including Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, had reached the provincial metropolis on Friday.

After sweeping elections in July last year, the PTI had formed its government in Azad Kashmir with Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi as the prime minister.

According to sources in the PTI, during the rule of Mr Niazi, many messages were sent to Imran Khan directly or indirectly to summon the AJK parliamentary party meeting where members could express their grievances, but to no avail.

Mr Niazi was replaced by the incumbent premier and the party’s regional president, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, on April 18 this year, a week after Mr Khan was himself ousted in a vote of no-confidence by the combined opposition.

“Neither Khan sahib could spare time to host and address the meeting of his regional parliamentary party during his premiership nor afterwards… therefore it will be the first formal meeting of the regional parliamentary party with him,” said one of the PTI’s sources who declined to be identified.

Immediately, it was not clear as to what had prompted Mr Khan to summon the AJK parliamentary party meeting when apparently he was not feeling well, the sources said, adding that the exact agenda of the meeting was not known either.

However, an official press release stated that the meeting would hold discussions on the recently held local government polls, governance-related issues in Azad Kashmir and India’s unrelenting bestiality in India-held Kashmir.

Before meeting Mr Khan, the PTI Azad Kashmir lawmakers would attend a luncheon at the Punjab Assembly and in the evening they would attend a dinner in their honour by Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, sources said.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022