Imran Khan likely to be removed from party chief post

The top-brass of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf likely to remove the country’s lastly ousted prime minister Imran Khan from his party chief post as danger was evaporating to remove him by legal authority.

The party reviewed the legal challenges regarding Imran Khan’s position as the party chief and considered appointing him as “patron-in-chief” to avoid the danger of him being removed as chairman.

Pakistan’s Geo News reported this quoting English daily The News International on Saturday.

The PTI chief is facing criminal charges in the Toshakana case after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified him from the (National Assembly) NA-95 (Mianwali-1) constituency for allegedly filing incorrect statements of assets.

After Khan was found guilty in the Toshakana scandal, the electoral commission launched procedures against him last month. However, Khan, the PTI chairman approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the ECP’s move to debar him from heading his party and secured a stay order in his favour.

Justice Jawad Hassan of the LHC, who was hearing the case, barred the ECP from taking any adverse action against Khan and urged to the chief justice that the case be decided by a larger bench.

In a meeting on Friday, the party big-shots discussed the legal aspects of the case and considered appointing Khan as patron-in-chief.

Party insiders claim that the PTI has a backup strategy to fight the legal potential of Khan‍‍`s removal from the PTI chairmanship.

“Even with the new appointment, he will still have complete authority to oversee party affairs,” the report stated.

They said there would be no need to amend the party constitution for the new position.