PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Monday said he would request party founder Imran Khan tomorrow and step down from his party position in the wake of an undisclosed incident that occurred.
In a post on X today, he said: “An incident has occurred today that now demands a decisive decision from me. My life is an open book. None of my actions contradicts any principle. I do not accept compromise on intellectual and economic integrity. Tomorrow I will resign from my position by requesting Khan sahib. My legal services will remain available without compensation.”
Raja did not disclose what the incident was that compelled him to make the decision to step down.
He added that he had already sent a request to Imran last week to allow him to focus on legal matters away from the post of the secretary general.
However, he said Imran had not accepted his request, adding that he was grateful to the PTI founder for the trust reposed in him.
“My entire legal and intellectual life has been governed by the principles that are part of my nature: human dignity, which is the basis of democracy, resistance against social and state oppression of women and minorities, economic justice and the supremacy of law and Constitution.”
Listing some famous cases for which he is renowned, Raja said he had a long list in which he had the opportunity to support his principles. He added that he entered the political arena, along with providing legal assistance, on Imran’s instructions during the period of PTI’s tribulation.
“My aim was to contribute to the struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution, law and democracy. I am proud that I got the opportunity to contribute to the achievement of this goal with my body, mind and money.”
The PTI has been subject to recent discord in the party leadership and ranks that had prompted Imran to prohibit his party members from publicly discussing the party’s internal matters and to shun all their differences.
Raja has had differences with others in the PTI before, including interim chairman Barrister Ali Gohar in April over access to Imran.
Raja had previously announced to step down from the party office in the wake of allegations and recriminations among party leaders over the ‘failure’ of PTI’s final November protest call in Islamabad last year.
Raja had submitted his resignation to Barrister Gohar, who had confirmed its receipt while maintaining that the decision to accept or reject the resignation would be made by Imran. Until then, Raja was asked to continue performing his duties.
Sources had said the political and core committee’s guns were trained on Raja, as he was censured for his complete failure in mobilising the masses and bringing out any rally from Lahore to reinforce the workers from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter who were pushing towards D-Chowk.
However, sources privy to developments had told Dawn that Raja was already demoralised as former first lady Bushra Bibi was calling the shots and had allegedly insulted several party leaders in meetings held in Peshawar ahead of the November 24 protest.
Raja also faced harsh and offensive commentary on his video message from a day earlier, where he presented “excuses” for not making it out of Lahore.
Hammad Azhar withdraws from NA-129 (Lahore) by-election race, nominates cousin
Separately, PTI leader Hammad Azhar withdrew from the race for the by-election for NA-129 (Lahore), which fell vacant after the death of his father, and nominated his cousin instead for the seat.
“I have no desire to be a part of Form-47 parliament that is full of fake MPs. Also, last time my 82-year-old father contested, he was harassed by police, arrested and my home repeatedly smashed. As the only son and sole male heir of the family, I do not want my mother to go through another trauma and on her instructions I have nominated my cousin and father’s nephew Chaudhry Arsalan Zaheer to contest in my place in case the party decided to not boycott the election in my constituency.”
