Pakistan: IPP senior leader claims Qureshi wanted to 'form own group in PTI'

Ismail, a former PTI politician, claimed that Qureshi said this when he met him in jail.

Ismail, who is now a senior Istehkam-e-Pakistan (IPP) leader, clarified some details about his meeting with the senior PTI politician on X.

He claimed that the meeting was scheduled on the former foreign minister Qureshi's wish.

The former Sindh governor, in his statement, also revealed that he had never asked Qureshi -- who remains behind bars for his "involvement" in the May 9 riots -- to leave the party.

"I met Shah Mahmood Qureshi. I want to state for the record that I never talked to him about leaving PTI," he wrote on X, as per Geo News.

However, Ismail added, that the meeting was "held on the wish of Shah Sahib.".

"Shah Sahib wanted to form his own group but we were excused from supporting him," he added in his post on the social media platform.

Ismail's statement comes at a time when Qureshi is slated to run for the upcoming general elections on February 8.

Qureshi met with the now-IPP leader in the wake of the May 9 riots and the arrests that ensued from the violence last year, which were triggered due to Khan's arrest in a graft case.

Ismail, along with PTI defectors Fawad Chaudhry and Mahmood Molvi -- who is IPP Sindh president -- met the incarcerated politician when he was in Adiala jail.

Fawad and others in a media talk outside the jail after the meeting, maintained that they had made contact with a number of PTI leaders and those who had left the party. There were unconfirmed reports that the visitors tried to convince Qureshi to also part ways with the PTI.

Qureshi's son, Zain Hussain Qureshi, on the other hand, denied media reports over his father's meeting with the former PTI leaders in Adiala Jail.

"I deny the impression being given in the media on Shah Mehmood Qureshi's meeting with former PTI leaders in Adiala Jail. Makhdoom Sahib is the vice chairman of the party and the name of an ideology," he explained, as per Geo News.

"We stand with the PTI and Imran Khan's ideology. Shah Mehmood Qureshi has done politics of principles and service till date and no post or greed can buy Shah Sahib. We were with Imran Khan yesterday and are today as well," he said in a tweet. (ANI)