Exclusive interview with Syed Numan Shah, Joint Secretary Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Exclusive
Waheed Hussain
May 9 was a nightmare-shocking for every citizen, who loves the country and its armed forces. The violent protests had a method in the madness. The insanity displayed by some of the leaders, workers, and followers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had a comprehensive strategy, but again majority of the leaders and followers of Imran Khan disagreed with the so-called anti-army narrative of the PTI Chief.
Syed Numan Shah, a Central Joint Secretary of PTI, is one of those outspoken leaders of PTI, who still stands with the party, however, vocally disapprove IK’s decisions, political narrative, and fascist approach, which led to attacking military installations, desecration the Martyrs (Shuhadas) monuments, and provoking the masses for violence on the ‘Black Day’ on May 9.
During a detailed interaction with one of the senior most members of the party, Numan Shah, has expressed his deep sorrow and anger on the May 9 violent events, which damaged the image of the country- practically devastated and disintegrated the party itself.
“Weakening the Pakistan Army meant putting the country’s internal and external security at highest risk. The job which could not be executed or done by our worst enemies, was orchestrated, and launched by a political party leader, who claimed to protect the state, its institutions, and masses from all kinds of conspiracies and dangers,” lamented Numan Shah. “On May 9, I advised the party senior members including Amir Kiani, Imran Ismahail, Saifullah Niazi to hold an emergency press conference and forcefully condemn the violence committed on that day. They agreed with the condition to get permission from the President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi. When the president was approached, he agreed with the idea. However, when the President and Saifullah Niazi along with some other party members met the chairman PTI at Police Lines Islamabad, the idea of holding the press conference to condemn attacks on the military installations was dropped. At that time Imran Khan was not willing to condemn the violence against the armed forces installations. The actual condemnation from Khan came many days after the bloody act,” he informed.
He said, “misinformation has been spread in the public, particularly among PTI followers and workers that anybody, who was associated with the party, had been arrested and persecuted, which was a ‘Nazi’s kind of propaganda’.” Numan Shah highlighted with full confidence that he was sitting at his residence, doing his routine family and business activities comfortably, without any fear and interference from any government agencies, the reason being that he was not involved in any violent protests or incidents including the one being operated on May 9.
He stressed that all those PTI leaders and workers, who had been in hiding or had run away from the country, should come back without any fear. “The law of the land provides protections to its citizens, other than my example, look at Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Omer, Asad Qaisar, and dozens of other PTI leaders and workers, who did not leave the party, but were out of jail and law enforcement agencies custody, through a legal court bail process.
This indicates that the PTI chairman’s claim that the party has been targeted through a plan, was a concocted-misleading statement, just to gain the political benefit and try to deviate masses and the world’s attention from the May 9 crime. Imran should stop this propaganda,” he suggested.
About those who had left the party before or after the May 9 violent incidents, Numan Shah bitterly castigated the ill-conceived policies of chairman PTI, saying that after gaining the power in 2018, Imran khan was encircled by the inexperienced jockers, who didn’t know the ABC of the politics. “They were unaware of the ground realities of the country’s political and economic challenges. They wanted to run the country through the social media campaigns, misleading the masses, the process had failed the PTI government and created disappointment among the masses.
When somebody within the party tried to point out weaknesses in the so-called policies and decision-making process, he or she was not only ignored by the I.K, in fact, their entry into Bani Gala and PM office was banned.
They were being ignored and did not enjoy access to the then PM. So finally, people got disappointed by the Khan’s attitude, and started leaving him and the party. Those who left the party after May 9 violence were the group of politicians, who were against any such action who could put the country’s security and its institutions at risk. Many PTI leaders knew that Khan had a bad temperament and could go to any extent for the regaining of power.
So, they finally decided to leave the party and find some other political platform to serve the masses.” he narrated. He said those who left the PTI because of May 9, had been with Imran for over three decades. “Khan’s unilateral decision making, like a dictator, was a pain in the neck of many party leaders. He had an undemocratic attitude. He picked up Osman Buzzdar, who failed to perform rather brought numerous stories of corruption and mismanagement in Punjab. Similarly, he selected Khalid Khursheed as Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan, whose degree was being declared as a fake. Both these nominees distorted the party image, which used to speak of transparency, fairness, and merit,” Numan Shah elaborated.
He said cases like Al-Qadir Trust and Toshakhana were like a scar on the face of chairman PTI. “Where was the concept of high moral ground? Khan for 27 years was attacking the former prime ministers and heads of state for misusing their authorities for personal gains. In Al-Qadir Trust he should not have included himself and Bushra BB’s names as trustees.
He should not have benefited from the 190 million pounds amount, the money, which was supposed to be deposited in the national exchequer. As it’s an open secret that the agreement’s copy was not disclosed to the cabinet members, which created doubts about the entire deal.
Gifts are attractive and precious, but before coming into power, khan was against such items, which were presented to the heads of government or state, as they belonged to the country-its people and not to any individuals. In both the cases Khan had damaged his image as ‘Mr. Clean’. These cases would haunt the chairman PTI and would also bring some legal trouble to his political career,” he continued.
“Overseas Pakistanis were the asset and strength of the nation. They are the real ambassadors of Pakistan in different countries. Besides representing our culture in foreign lands, they have been contributing to the national economy through sending huge amounts as remittances.
However, most of our brothers and sisters living abroad were unaware of the facts related to the PTI leadership, its decision making and working style. Imran Khan’s narrative is fake. He does not follow what he says in his speeches. There was a huge gap between the words he uttered and the actions he took as a Prime Minister and as a party leader. They should judge him through his decisions and actions, instead of listening to the emotional speeches he makes through the media, especially the social media,” he advised.
Shah was worried about the future of PTI in the coming days and months.
