Pak's defence minister rejects claims that Imran Khan was being pressured to accept a 'deal'

    Islamabad, Apr 25 (PTI) Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has rejected the claims made by Imran Khan's close aide Barrister Gohar Khan that the jailed former premier was being pressured to accept a "deal", according to a media report Thursday.
    "There is no truth in claims of pressuring Imran Khan to come to the negotiating table," Asif said in an interview published in Independent Urdu on Wednesday and reported by the Dawn newspaper on Thursday.
    Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament House on Tuesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan replied in the negative when asked if he had said there was “pressure being exerted for a deal” with Imran Khan: “No, I have not given any such statements”.
    However, Gohar later said: “Another thing we (PTI) are saying is that the way Khan sahib is being kept in jail, the way [Bushra] Bibi has been [jailed], these are all [forms of] pressure that Khan sahib somehow agrees to a deal.
    “And these are all pressures that Khan sahib somehow breaks,” he claimed.
    Rejecting Gohar’s statements, Asif said that Imran Khan's party was making such statements only to stay relevant. He added that “reputable people from the PTI had given statements that there was no deal taking place nor was there any contact” for it.     “Now, if such controversial statements would come from the PTI itself, what can we say about it?” the senior PML-N leader said.
    When asked about relations between the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the Centre, Asif said that the federal government should not be the one to take the “initiative” of ruining the relations.
    Since his removal from power in a no-confidence motion in April 2022, the 71-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician has been convicted in at least four cases.     Khan has been lodged at Adiala Jail at Rawalpindi after conviction in multiple cases.
    Since falling out with the powerful military, Khan's party has been facing a crackdown. The party faced pressure in the form of arrests and dese­rtions in the wake of the May 9 viol­ence that broke out after Khan's arrest last year.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)