ISLAMABAD - In a major development, incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday replaced his legal counsel Faisal Chaudhry with Chaudhry Zaheer Abbas. Jailed Bushra Bibi, former first lady and wife of Imran Khan, also sacked her focal person Mishal Yousafzai and appointed four people as her spokespersons. PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja officially made these announcements while talking to reporters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail following his meeting with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan.
‘Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi have appointed Chaudhry Zaheer Abbas as their lawyer with regard to all matters of jail’, he said, adding that Abbas was already their lawyer in Al-Qadir Trust case. He while indirectly referring to Faisal Chaudhry said the purpose was no one tries to raise his political stature by representing Khan as his legal counsel.
‘In the past, some people triad to raise their political stature through legal profession’, he said again hinting at Chaudhry, the brother of disgruntled PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, without naming him. Fawad has been criticising the senior PTI leadership for its “flawed policies” in the last couple of weeks - a move that has not gone well into the ranks of the party.
The secretary general further said anyone only should do politics who has been given political position by the party chief Khan. He added that Chaudhry had been instructed to hand over all petitions to Abbas. Raja told reporters that Khan had also appointed senior lawyer Niaz Ullah Niazi as his spokesperson, who had been assigned the task to talk to media outside Adiala Jail.
He said Bibi had appointed Naeem Haider Panjutha, Mubashir, Khalid Chaudhry and Rai Suleman as her spokespersons.
He underlined that PTI wanted from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to become part of grand opposition alliance, and he had been instructed by Khan about what to talk to the veteran politician over the issue.