Imran threatens candidates who don’t start a campaign with losing their party tickets

Former PM claims Qureshi “was for [ex-COAS] Bajwa” and that he “found cipher by chance.”

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has threatened to seize the election tickets of his party’s candidates if they don’t begin their campaigns peacefully for the February 8 elections.

The former prime minister, who is currently detained in Adiala jail, declared that candidates’ tickets would be replaced with new ones if they do not appear for the election starting on Sunday.

In an informal conversation with members of the media in the Adiala detention courtroom, he made these remarks.

The political ‘bat’ symbol, which was a key motivator for voters, was removed this month, and the party’s founder was imprisoned in May of last year. In addition, the party it was seeking an alliance with, PTI-Nazriati, also abandoned its pledge.

But the PTI has promised not to abstain from voting and run without its recognizable election emblem. With the removal of the ‘bat’ insignia, each of its candidates will be running under a distinct sign.

Khan added that upon receiving the diplomatic cable, Asad Majeed, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US and a witness in the cipher case, had suggested sending a demarche to an official meeting.

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By coincidence, Shah Mahmood Qureshi discovered the cipher. For General (retd) Bajwa, that is. Every effort was put into keeping the cipher quiet. In three weeks my government was toppled. Why was the demarche sent if there was nothing of the sort in the cipher? “Is it being sent to America by anyone?” he asked.

He asserted that without his knowledge, General (retd) Bajwa had employed Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US, in October 2021. “Haqqani was given $35,000,” he claimed. He claimed in a tweet that Bajwa supports America whereas Imran is opposed to it.

The former prime minister claimed that members of his party were prohibited from running for office. “Anyway, February 8 should be the date of the elections,” he continued.

Senior PTI leader Qureshi, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to senior lawmaker Javed Hashmi for voicing the truth.

Hashmi declared that he would be leaving the election and giving way to Aamir Dogar, who is supported by the PTI and will run in the NA-149 seat on February 8th.

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Hashmi declared that he would be leaving the election and giving way to Aamir Dogar, who is supported by the PTI and will run in the NA-149 seat on February 8th.

Hashmi, a previous member of both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI, declared in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was “throwing my political weight behind the Tehreek-e-Insaf and Imran Khan and withdrawing from the elections.”

According to Qureshi, political meddling was tolerated by the National Security Committee (NSC) and the cipher was only visible to the secretary.