ISLAMABAD: A group of former leaders of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has requested the government to release several high-profile PTI leaders on parole, describing the move as a vital “confidence-building measure” to end the political polarization in the country.
The request, sent on Wednesday by a newly formed National Dialogue Committee (NDC), comes days after a special court in Islamabad sentenced Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years on charges of understating the value of state gifts before acquiring them for personal use.
PTI criticized the verdict, calling it politically motivated, as the sentence further deepened the rift between the government and Khan’s party.
“We firmly believe that in the current political, economic, and institutional crises, dialogue and reconciliation are the only viable path forward,” the committee stated in the letter addressed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a copy of which was shared with Arab News by former PTI federal minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, one of its authors along with former Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Mahmood Maulvi.
The letter specifically calls for the release on parole of senior PTI figures in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, including former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and Ejaz Chaudhry. The authors argued that these leaders are essential to “lead and participate effectively” in any meaningful negotiations.
