Qureshi-Imran deal
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ISLAMABAD: There are signs that an understanding was reached between PTI Chief Imran Khan and newcomer Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a condition of joining his party.
The deal would get him the post of Senior Vice Chairman and interestingly, chief of the Parliamentary Board, which will award PTI tickets in the next elections.“These offices would be given to Qureshi under the arrangements finalised before he joined the PTI,” PTI sources told The News here on Tuesday.
Since Shah Mahmood Qureshi was not available as he is out of the country, PTI Secretary General Dr Arif Alvi, when contacted, neither denied nor confirmed the dual posts deal. “Qureshi Sb, being one of the senior politicians in our party, would, definitely, have a formal position in the Tehrik-e-Insaaf but there is no decision as yet,” he said.
To a question, Alvi said the PTI central core committee, the decision making body, would meet most possibly next week to take up a host of issues. “All decisions are finalised in our party in consultation with the whole central leadership.”
Sources say Imran Khan can take Qureshi for the slot of vice chairmanship at any time. “He would have the position next to the party’s founding chief.” Former President Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan Advocate, incumbent VC, would be given another position in the party, the sources added.
The party constitution, they quickly further added, would be amended to create some more offices within the party to meet new requirements as more and more personalities are to be accepted in the PTI ranks.
The PTI sources said Hamid Khan’s office would also be determined from among the new positions to be created. “Imran does not want to corner or discourage those working for the party since a long but do not have winning constituencies.”
Another part of the deal is that the former foreign minister would have 25 per cent of the candidates of his personal choice to contest the general election from the National Assembly and provincial assembly seats of the Punjab,” the source further revealed.
These arrangements, they said confidently, were finalised between the meetings between Imran Khan and Qureshi before the latter joined the party last Sunday.
According to the PTI sources, Qureshi would have preferred the PML-N if these terms were not accepted by the PTI chairman for joining. “Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad was expected to be named for the parliamentary board but now he would be accommodated at some other position.”
PTI Secretary General Alvi said the parliamentary board was yet to be formed. “Committees have been set up to establish the central board for selecting candidates. “I am unaware about the agreement between Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Imran Khan on the number of seats they discussed before the former foreign minister joined the PTI,” Alvi said.