Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Khawaja Asif, the Federal Minister of Defense, has confirmed that Imran Khan’s old friend worked to get the PTI leader to meet with the establishment a few times.
“Thanks to an old friend of Imran Khan, we had a couple of meetings with the establishment,” the minister said.
He said that these meetings were part of their consultations, but that there were no negotiations with the establishment.
The PML-N said that there is no room for compromise between Imran Khan and the establishment, so there are no talks between them. He said that Imran Khan talked about the “negotiation thing” to give his supporters hope.
He said that no meeting is not about politics because all meetings are about politics.
He warned that the PTI won’t be able to get the PML-N government to do what it wants if Imran Khan’s party tries to do that by going on an adventure in the federal capital.
“Imran Khan wants to use his protest sit-in and the long march into Islamabad to force the government to do what he wants. However, the government won’t be forced to do anything,” he said.
Read Get ready for long March protest: Imran Khan
The defence minister says that the process for choosing the new army chief will probably start in the next five to seven days. The minister said that five names will be sent to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who will choose one of them.
He said that no decision has been made yet about who will be the next army chief. He also said that the next army chief won’t be controversial. He said that the PTI leader would try to stir up trouble about the upcoming appointment.
Khawaja Asif said that the former prime minister can go back to Pakistan whenever he wants, so Nawaz Sharif does not need Imran Khan’s permission to go home.
The minister said that the general elections will definitely happen on time, even though Pakistan’s Constitution and law give the government the right to hold pre-elections if it wants to.
“We won’t decide what to do based on what we want. Instead, decisions will be made based on the law and the Constitution “he said.
Long March must happen in October no matter what: Imran Khan
Imran Khan, on the other hand, said again that he would start the anti-government protest movement before the end of this month (October) no matter what. He said that the march was very important for Pakistan’s “Haqeeqi Azadi“.
Imran Khan said that the coalition government was running away from elections after the government turned down his idea to hold elections quickly.
Khan has told the government that he has given it some time to decide when the general elections will be held. If they don’t, he will move toward Islamabad, and he won’t wait until October to do so.
The former prime minister told a group of journalists from the National Press Club and the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) that the government was doing everything it could to get rid of him. So, he said, charges were brought against him.
Even though the former prime minister had told him many times not to march to the capital, the federal government told him not to.
