LAHORE: Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday that a campaign was run against him within the party (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf) as if he was a man of the establishment.

Responding to reporters’ queries in an anti-terrorism court, the PTI leader said he was in the core committee of PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.

“Ask Imran Khan who else from his core committee is still standing with him apart from me,” Mr Qureshi suggested to a journalist, when asked about media reports that the PTI founder said at the time of his arrest that Mr Qureshi was a man of the establishment.

“If I were an establishment’s man, would I be in jail today?” the former foreign minister added.

To a query about the DG ISPR’s latest statement that the army had no connection with any political party, Mr Qureshi said, the statement of the army’s spokesman was positive, and the institution should now prove it.

Commenting on a bill related to the judicial package and increasing the number of judges, he termed the bills an attempt to bulldoze the parliament.

He said the judiciary should not be weakened.

Mr Qureshi said the PTI workers who stood by the party’s ideology should reach the Islamabad rally on Sept 8.

To a question about making Parvez Elahi president of PTI and his post-release silence, Mr Qureshi said, “We both were together in Adiala jail, and Elahi was indeed unwell.”

Earlier, during the hearing of May 9 cases, Mr Qureshi came to the rostrum and stated that he had been in politics for 40 years and never faced any case. But suddenly 55 cases had been filed against him.

He asked the judge why the prosecution was not presenting its arguments.

He accused the prosecution of deliberately delaying the proceedings.

“If we are guilty, then punish us,” he said on behalf of PTI leaders facing May 9 cases.

Speaking to the reporters, PTI Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid said the Islamabad rally would be a successful event. She said the people of Pakistan stood with Imran Khan.

She said the government was wearing a cloak of democracy that would soon be removed.

She said practically there was martial law in the country.

ATC Judge Arshad Javed adjourned the hearing of multiple cases against the PTI leaders till Sept 16 with a direction to the prosecution to distribute copies of the challans among the suspects.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2024