ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that his claim of ‘35 punctures’, which referred to alleged electoral rigging in 35 constituencies of Punjab, was nothing more than a political statement.
Imran Khan said this in his exclusive interview in Hamid Mir’s program ‘Capital Talk’ on Wednesday.
Mir asked Khan as to why he shied away from bringing up the issue of ‘35 punctures’ before the judicial commission probing the rigging allegations.
To which Khan replied that Brigadier (Retd) Samson Simon heard about the ‘35 punctures’ from Agha Murtaza Poya and that a message of ‘35 punctures’ was shared on social media in a tweet.
“Political statement means that Brigadier Samson told us, he heard it from Agha Murtaza Poya, and so it was tweeted and became the ‘35 punctures’,” he said.
so it was not an accusation but 'just a political statement.' .... and for sake of that political statement, Sethi was abused for 2 years straight by hyper PTI trolls and its leadership?
pretty pathetic....is he now going to apologize publicly to najam sethi or notttt?
1) We will form corruption free Pakistan -
2) We only believe in Merit
3) All donation money is spent wisely ( yeah, buying barren land in Oman was a wise decision)
4) I will never lie ( yeah true, i will only issue political statements, and my followers are idiots of highest level so they'll believe it)
more to come... this guy have caused more loss to Pakistan then PML-N or PPP can do.. he have killed the hopes and have killed the chance of election reforms for alteast next ten years... he and his greed is going to cost Pakistan big time
As Khawaja Asif said... Koy Sharam Hoti hay, Koy Haya hoti hay.... and IK replied.. Qasm say maiN in dono say kabhi nahi mila, aur naa'hi maiN inhay janta hooN mera in say kisi bhi kisam ka taluq sirf propaganda hay( and then turning to Jahangeer Tareen and whispering in his ear saying... kya yeh dono khubsurat bhi haiN)
As i have said before, Imran should have never mentioned name of individuals like Sethi in his accusations. His comments of based on what one of his party members had heard which by the way has been confirmed by the journalist but Imran didn't have tape. Sethi's out of the blue & shocking appointments as care taker CM and PCB chairman and his admission that the power had been transferred to Shahbaz Sharif 10 days before election also contributed to the accusations.
If you look at the bigger picture and watch Imran's interview with Hamid Mir about rigging issue and judicial commission, i don't know how one can still deny that our honourable Prime Minister and his party are all innocent and thousands and thousands of extra ballot papers (especially for high profile PMLN constituencies) were printed as an error and missing form 15s was just a con incidence. Incompetency can be blamed only to some extent, even bunch of teenagers would have run a better election. Why is their no eye brows raised on such important issues just like multiple "Sethi is innocent" threads?
Najam Sethi** @najamsethi](https://twitter.com/najamsethi) 8h8 hours ago
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What about all those anchors and commentators who maligned me day and night by accepting or not challenging the 35 penture allegation?**
Adeela K. Zubair @adeelaz](https://twitter.com/adeelaz) 10h10 hours ago
**
IK never fails to disappoint us; always ready to go down d drain w his political acumen & always humiliates his voters**
If you look at the bigger picture and watch Imran's interview with Hamid Mir about rigging issue and judicial commission, i don't know how one can still deny that our honourable Prime Minister and his party are all innocent and thousands and thousands of extra ballot papers (especially for high profile PMLN constituencies) were printed as an error and missing form 15s was just a con incidence. Incompetency can be blamed only to some extent, even bunch of teenagers would have run a better election. Why is their no eye brows raised on such important issues just like multiple "Sethi is innocent" threads?
2 different things brother....
Nawaz & Co role in rigging is still out there and judicial commission will make the final decision..there is absolutely no reason to claim or believe that nawaz & co are completely free of rigging allegations, not yet
Sethi was specifically blamed by Imran and PTI for "35 punctures tale" based on a "phone call" that took place "between Nawaz and Sethi" and PTI apparently had some sort of proof. Sethi was maligned, insulted, embarrassed and labeled as a "35 punctures guy" for 2 years by PTI trolls. We all thought IK and PTI must have some proof for making such forceful claims.
Now IK is saying that i dont have any proof whatsoever, that i never heard of any such phone conversation myself and that it was just a political statement. what?
IK needs to apologize to sethi for making a wrong claim aka 35 punctures against him without any proof.
Now that does not mean sethi never did anything wrong in elections. That is a different topic and still remains valid. We dont know yet. JC will decide that
نجم سیٹھی کے خلاف نتنا پرپیگمدہ کیا گیا،جتنی کردار کشی کی گئی کیا اس پر عمران خان معافی مانگے گا؟
اگر اس میں تھوڑی بہت بھی انسانیت ہے تو یہ اس کا فرض ہے اور عمران کے پجاریوں،بے غیرت دانشوروں کو بھی اپنے گندے کردار پر غور کرنا چاہیئے۔
day after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan termed the allegation of ‘35 punctures’ as just political talk, confusion has arisen within party ranks.
Senior leader Dr Arif Alvi says it is time to apologise for the allegation while another PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen has said there were in fact 71 punctures and not just 35.
Responding to a question about why the matter of 35 punctures was not raised before the judicial commission probing poll rigging allegations during the 2013 General Elections, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday told Geo television’s anchorperson Hamid Mir that the issue of 35 punctures was just “political talk”. Read: The story Of ‘35 punctures’
He said the information had indirectly reached the members of his party after passing through several channels of sources.
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After the party chairman’s interview, PTI leader Naeemul Haque had tweeted: “Of course the 35 puncture story was political but also correct. Let Najam Sethi, Murtaza Poya,Dr Ijaz and US Ambassador come on TV on this.”
On the other hand, PTI’s senior leader Dr Arif Alvi came out with a different opinion on the matter.
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Dr Alvi said it was “time to apologise for 35 punctures. Many rumours regarding source of information and content were afloat and I believed some of them.”
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Alvi and Naeem’s difference of opinion.
“Naeem-ul-Haque believes the 35 puncture story is correct and he has some source of direct information which I don’t,” Dr Arif Alvi further said in a tweet.
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When an observer asked Dr Alvi and Naeemul Haque to pick up the phone and sort their versions out, Dr Alvi tweeted saying: “Actually we picked up the phone and talked about it. Mr @naeemul_haque has the info but I don’t.”
Jahangir Tareen rejected Dr Alvi’s apology remarks, saying they might have been his (Dr Alvi’s) own point of view. Speaking to journalists after attending a session of the judicial commission, he said the party would not apologise and added that there were 71 punctures and not just 35.
The issue of ‘35 punctures’ came to light in Feb 2014 after a PTI leader tweeted on the matter, followed by others.
The tweets alleged that on the night of May 13, 2013, Najam Sethi had called Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party chief (and the current prime minister) Nawaz Sharif and had assured him that the “35 punctures” had been fixed.
PTI leaders had at the time said that the information had come from an envoy associated with the US government.
Actually that says it all about PTI. Its logically divided into many groups.
The sane faction with Arif Alvi and Asad Umar in it will definitely go for apology as they have to guts to accept the wrongdoing. We should appreciate that.
The other group which is more of a "Qabza group" with Jhangir Tareen and others who have their own agendas will keep saying things what IK referred as "political statement" i.e. Lies and nothing but lies.
This group will definitely not leave PTI anywhere.
Now the question is, is IK stupid enough to believe something like the tape just because some dr on tv said so or some poyo said so?
He may have a higher moral ground and may have more support from the masses if he stood reforms, but he made himself look like a joker...
Need a new party... A better leadership...the vaccum is there...PPP gone, PTI became PPP and PML seems to loosing its way....new party is needed....martial law is not an option..not even under a saint
As for imran, he was doing sledging in politics. Ideally, you get penalized for such behavior but considering the gems like CTBT, Bhai and Zardari shaheed,
