Estranged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Major (retired) Khurram Hameed Khan Rokhri revealed on Thursday the timeline of “backchannel talks” between the PTI and the establishment, as he denounced former premier Imran Khan’s allegations against senior intelligence official Major General Faisal Naseer.
In an interview with Hamid Mir on Geo News, Rokhri recalled that a few days after PTI leader Dr Shahbaz Gill was arrested, a meeting was held in Bani Gala where it was discussed that a new intelligence officer had been posted in Islamabad with the aim to “eliminate PTI and Chairman Imran Khan’s narrative”.
“When Gen Faisal Naseer’s name was taken, I said hold on a minute. Now I know Gen Naseer the same way you know other people in Geo News or anyone in the media” he told Mir.
“[PTI leader] Salman Ahmed asked me then what was the narrative… the next day they were going to a rally in Jhelum and I told Salman to tell Khan this… I will cut things short here,” he revealed.
“So Salman tells Khan that the opinion of a close aide of yours […] about Gen Faisal Naseer […] is not the same as what people around you say. When Khan asked him who that person was, Salman replied it is Maj Khurram,” he recalled. PTI chief asked Salman to direct Rokhri to confront the officer.
“I called the Major General and told him I wanted to meet him. When I met him, I asked the general if he had been posted [in Islamabad] for this reason,” he said. Gen Naseer told him that he was posted the day Gen Sarfraz was martyred, some 20 days back, he confirmed.
Rokhri then recalled Faisal Naseer’s reply, “I am a professional man… why would I want to do this… Imran Khan is the leader of the biggest political party of Pakistan… he is a hero of the country… why would I want this. And if someone is telling Imran this, please go and tell him that there is nothing as such.”
“The PTI sent me the conditions for talks, which I forwarded to the persons being named. They agreed to meet but suggested a place other than theirs or ours.”
Rokhri added that Salman later called him to Islamabad for meeting with Imran, but he could not meet the PTI chief despite a long wait. He was called again, according to Rokhri, but he could not meet the party chief. He added that he refused to meet when he was called for the third time after the attack on Imran.
He said he wanted to normalise the situation but refused, telling them (PTI leaders) that he would not be part of the game they had started. He quipped, “Hasn’t Alvi Sahib arranged the meeting?”
The PTI leader said he spoke the truth about the general officer on a TV channel, but the abusive brigade started targeting him. He added that Faisal Vawda was also sincerely trying to defuse the situation, but the “abusive brigade” went after him.
At one point during the interview, the retired major also said that Khan was being “misled” by a few people who were “roaming around him”, adding that the one well-wisher the former premier had was his sister Aleema Khan. However, he regretted that the PTI chief never listened to her.
He added that Khan was wrongly convicted in the Toshakhana reference and asserted that Gen Naseer had nothing to do with the alleged custodial torture of Shahbaz Gill.
Meanwhile, hours after Rokhri made the startling revelations, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry questioned who he was.
“Yeah kon hein? [Who is this?]” asked the senior PTI leader in response to a clip of journalist Hamid Mir’s programme ‘Capital Talk’ with Rokhri.
Shahbaz Gill tweeted, “Who is this, sir? Never seen or heard of him before. God knows who will emerge as the leader of Tehreek-e-Insaf in the future.”
On the other hand, an account with Rokhri’s name on Twitter uploaded an image of him with Fawad. It was unclear if the account belonged to the retired army officer.
However social media users had dug up pictures of Major Rokhri with multiple leaders of PTI including Imran Khan.
However, PTI suspended the membership of Rokhri after he debunked party chief Imran Khan’s allegation against a senior army officer.
“After consultation with higher party leadership, basic party membership of Major (R) Khurram Hameed Khan Rokhart has been terminated,” PTI’s Mianwali President Saleem Gul Khan said in a notification.
