Former PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said there was an urgent need to lower the political temperature, adding that seeking compromise with other parties and avoiding confrontation was the best way to resolve the current issues plaguing the party.
Chaudhry, who remained in prison for months following the dismissal of the PTI government in April 2022, upon his release condemned the violent May 9 protests by party supporters and, through a post on X on May 24, 2024, announced his separation from former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The PTI had “completely disassociated itself” from him in December 2024, stating that he was not authorized to issue statements to the media or participate in television talk shows on behalf of the party.
talking to Sunrise On Saturday in his hometown of Jhelum, Chaudhry said: “I am a politician by birth and I believe in a political solution to political issues. Endless confrontation and confrontation see no light at the end of the tunnel.”
The former information minister said he had pointed out categorically during the early days of agitation that the current party leadership did not have the capacity to ensure Imran’s freedom, and his comments were heavily criticised.
Chaudhry said winning Imran’s freedom was always his primary concern, and that was why he was once again forced to issue a statement that the path of reconciliation, avoiding confrontation and “calling to silence the self-centered social networks working from overseas postings” was the panacea for the party’s current woes.
He said many party leaders who knew Imran in jail agreed and “those who matter in the PML-N also have the same line of thinking.” Chaudhry said collaborating with the government and the establishment was the need of the hour and reiterated that he was making sincere efforts to find a political solution.
The former PTI spokesperson said he had defended his position of seeking compromise instead of confrontation in a meeting with Imran in Adiala jail.
He commented that those raising the political temperature from the PTI side on social media were not doing the party any favors and were jeopardizing the future of the party for their own interests.
Chaudhry further said that the operators of the party’s social media accounts were certainly attracting audience by “ventilating volatile controversies and playing on the emotions of party workers”, but said that was neither the way nor appropriate to pave the way for Imran’s release.
He said the PTI was a political party and had a future to participate in politics at the national level, adding that “adding fuel to the fire with every new attractive video or so-called analysis” was reducing the political space at the national level.
When asked if he was still in the PTI, Chaudhry instantly replied: “If I was outside the PTI, I would have been a minister like many who abandoned Khan in difficult times.”
Chaudhry’s comments come in the wake of reports from Daily Ausaf and The express tribune That said, citing sources, senior politicians who were part of the PTI’s “former leadership” were planning to relaunch a political movement calling for Imran’s release.
Media reports had claimed that Chaudhry and Asad Umar, former Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, former MNA Mahmood Moulvi and former Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan were expected to lead the initiative once released. All of them, except Sibtain, broke away from the PTI after the May 9 riots.
According to the eastern time According to the report, sources said that the veteran leaders intended to rope in other experienced political figures from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. “The movement will gain real momentum after the release of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, when the old guard will be seen in active political action again,” a report quoted a source as saying.
The reports came after Chaudhry and Ismail published almost identical statements in
PTI’s Sheikh Waqas dismisses idea of old leaders leading any effort
Meanwhile, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram downplayed reports that the party’s former stalwarts will play any role in the future in an interview on Geographic news show ‘Naya Pakistan’.
“This is not something new that [news] arises, people who left the party. In the last year, there have been many attempts to sell this narrative of these characters and it has not garnered any support.
“Such attempts were also made in Adiala… but there was no support for such narratives from Khan, and I think when they were disappointed from there and saw the mood before Sohail Afridi became the prime minister, then [turned] towards Kot Lakpat.”
He said there are “some people who want to remain relevant because they are no longer part of any party.” “Everyone has a shop to sell, but that has no connection or impact on our party,” he said.
Asked about an opinion in the party to lower the political temperature, Akram resolutely said: “In the PTI there is only one thought: whatever Imran Khan says, it will happen. The rest is irrelevant. Whoever says what does not matter, has no weight. End of story. Who thinks what or not? Nothing? [matters].”
