Imran Ismail, a senior leader of Istehkam-e-Pakistan (IPP), asserted on Tuesday that Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the vice chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, mentioned starting his own faction inside the party Imran Khan created, during their meeting with the former governor of Sindh.
Ismail, a former Sindhi PTI lawmaker, provided more information on his meeting with the senior politician on X, the defunct Twitter platform.
The politician claimed on social media that he had met the top PTI leader when he was incarcerated, but Qureshi had requested that the meeting be organized.
In his statement, the former governor of Sindh also disclosed that he had never requested the former foreign minister, who is now in prison for his alleged involvement in the May 9 riots, to resign from the party.
“Shah Mahmood Qureshi and I met. I want to declare for the record that I never talked to him about leaving PTI,” he wrote on X.
Ismail did clarify, though, that the meeting was “held on the wish of Shah sahib”.
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“Shah sahib wanted to form his own group but we excused ourselves from supporting,” he continued in his statement on Facebook.
Ismail’s declaration coincides with Qureshi’s scheduled candidacy for the forthcoming general elections on February 8.
It is significant to remember that Qureshi met with the now-IPP leader following the May 9 riots and the arrests that followed the rioting last year, which were precipitated by Khan’s detention in a graft case. Ismail does not specify the precise time of this meeting.
Ismail first saw the imprisoned politician in June 2022 while he was in Adiala jail, together with PTI defectors Fawad Chaudhry and Mahmood Molvi, the president of the IPP Sindh.
Following the meeting, Fawad and others insisted to the journalists outside the jail that they had spoken with several PTI leaders and party defectors. Qureshi’s son Zain Hussain Qureshi, on the other hand, denied media reports over his father’s meeting with the former PTI leaders in Adiala Jail.
“I refute the narrative being presented in the media on Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s Wednesday meeting in Adiala Jail with former PTI leaders. He clarified, “Makhdoom Sahib is the name of an ideology and the vice chairman of the party.
“We support Imran Khan’s ideology and the PTI.” To this day, Shah Mehmood Qureshi has served the country and pursued politics based on values; neither wealth nor position can purchase Shah Sahib. We spent both yesterday and today with Imran Khan,” he tweeted.
