Ready to form committee for talks with ‘anyone’ in power: Imran

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Wednesday that he was ready to form a committee for talks with "anyone" in power, Aaj News reported.

A press conference was held by Imran in Lahore where he said he would set up this committee to negotiate with "those in power".

"The committee will have two questions: They tell the committee that they have a solution and the country can function better without me. Or they tell the committee what benefit will Pakistan gain from holding elections in October."

He said a one-sided narrative was being pushed through electronic and print media while people speaking out against the “reign of terror” were also abducted.

Imran lamented over 10,000 PTI workers were jailed where they were kept in poor conditions.

“And the situation is so difficult for them — they are kept in small cages, deprived of good food and water, and not allowed to meet their lawyers.

“They are being treated as if they are foreign enemies of the country, but even then, prisoners of war have rights.”

“Where are our human rights? Where are the people who raised their voices for the human right, democracy, and press freedom? Where is your conscience?”

Commenting about former party leader Shireen Mazari’s departure from politics, Imran said it was not just a loss for the PTI but for the entire country and its democracy.

“She was a patient of blood pressure, 72 years old, a widow … she was taken from one jail to the other in this heat. I am relieved that she resigned from the party to protect herself.

“But who is suffering in all this? Pakistan’s politics. Shireen was our top parliamentarian and cabinet minister who came well-read on everything. Even all her enemies know she is a patriot,” Imran said.

Imran said all this was done to knock him out of politics and crush his party.

“Those trying to take him out are destroying the country.”

Imran also demanded the details of the anchorperson Imran Riaz’s whereabouts and asked why the latter was not being presented in court.

“Courts have repeatedly asked them to present him, but they are not. I fear they’ve tortured him so much that they’ll be scared of presenting him in court,” he feared.

“Where is our journalist community? This bad time will come upon you too,” Imran warned.