ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan will not attend meeting of the heads of political parties hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to formulate a national security policy as the PTI chief will be out of the country.
The PTI will be represented at the meeting by its vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Parvez Khattak, who is also the party’s secretary general.
Dr Shireen Mazari, the spokesperson for the party, said Imran Khan’s visit to the UK was scheduled before the government announced its plans to convene the meeting in the parliament house.
“The PTI chairman has an appointment for medical check-up which can’t be deferred,” she said.
Imran Khan, who is recuperating from a back injury he suffered due to a fall from a lift during an election rally, will be staying in London till July 24 where after medical check-up he will be spending some time with his sons.
Mazari said the absence of Imran Khan from the meeting would not make any difference because, according to her, the government had nothing concrete to discuss at the meeting. She said that like previous such events, the proposed meeting would prove to be a futile exercise.
The PTI’s spokesperson said the PTI representatives would attend the proposed meeting and gauge the government’s seriousness in addressing the issue of militancy. The PTI would give its suggestions and see how this initiative was taken forward by the government, she added.