Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter President Junaid Akbar on Tuesday vowed to bring "hardliners" to the party's key positions, saying that PTI would march again towards Islamabad.

 

In a show on a private news channel, the recently appointed Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Junaid Akbar, said, “After the May 8 party reorganization, hardliners will come forward…homeopathic leadership will be sidelined, regardless of whether they hold central or provincial [party] positions.”

 

Defining hardliners, Akbar referred to those who had resisted during the May 9, 2023, protest, as well as those who might resist in the future. He added that PTI was deliberating three options for orchestrating protests in February.

 

In the same breath, he said, “We’ve finalised the protest at Sawabi on February 8. Another option is to record protests district-wise.”

 

Akbar further claimed that the party would bring changes to KP’s provincial cabinet, adding that two new members would be inducted.

 

Responding to a question about alleged political victimisation and “conspiracies” being hatched by the federal government, Akbar said attempts were being made to create a forward block in the former ruling party. “We also know who is in contact with whom,” he added.

 

Moreover, the PTI provincial president said that he would support the option to close the main roads of KP linked to Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, and motorways. “Party leadership is deliberating this option,” he sternly said.

 

Programme host Hamid Mir asked if PTI was going for a full-fledged war against the incumbent government and whether Imran Khan had no intentions of becoming Prime Minister (PM) again. Akbar quoted Imran Khan as saying, “I have forgotten to become PM again. PTI has to think beyond the government and premiership.”

 

When asked if his new position in the party suggested that there would be no negotiations with the government and the matters would be solved on the streets, Akbar replied, “Yes, definitely.”

 

The PTI leader further said that they would not engage with anyone when they take to the streets this time.

 

Advisor to the PM on Political Affairs, Rana Sanaullah, hours after Junaid’s remarks, responded by cautioning that if PTI violates the law while taking to the roads in the future, the law would take its own course.

 

“If they want to solve the problem on the roads, then come… problems can only be solved at the negotiation table in a democratic political system,” Sanaullah emphasised while speaking to a private news channel.