Web Desk (MNN); PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali has called on pro-democracy forces to help ease political tensions, expressing disappointment over the military spokesperson’s press briefing that sharply criticised the party and former prime minister Imran Khan.
Earlier in the day, ISPR Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry delivered a strongly worded 90-minute press conference in which he accused Imran Khan of crafting and promoting an anti-army narrative, saying such rhetoric had moved beyond politics and now posed a national security threat.
Most of the press conference focused on criticism of Imran, PTI, and the party’s KP government.
Responding in a post on X, Barrister Gohar said this was a time for political actors to recognise each other’s space and bridge mistrust. He appealed to all democratic forces to play their role in lowering tensions.
Gohar said he had hoped for an improvement in relations and a reduction in friction, but felt disappointed after the DG ISPR’s remarks.
He stated that national defence was paramount and asserted that PTI had never adopted an anti-state approach. He regretted the growing tendency for institutions and political actors to brand one another as mentally unstable or as threats.
Gohar also cautioned that the behaviour of certain non-stakeholders, without naming anyone, should not become a source of rift between PTI and state institutions.
He added that Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were currently in jail, and said the situation could improve if meetings with them were allowed.
The country cannot afford instability and confrontation, he concluded.
Separately, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said that an agitated reaction could not serve as a political strategy.
Meanwhile, Shahid Khattak, nominated by Imran as PTI’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, said that derogatory remarks about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi amounted to an insult to the entire Pakhtun and tribal population.
