Imran Khan Met US-Pakistani Before Delegation Visit

LONDON: Former prime minister and the jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan held extensive talks over several sessions in November last year with one of the persons involved in recent high-profile talks with members of the Pakistani administration for his release and the way forward for a possible breakthrough between the PTI and the powers that be.

Highly credible sources shared with a private news channel that long before a group of American-Pakistanis travelled to Pakistan in the third week of March for the sensitive talks, several rounds of meetings took place in Adiala jail between ex-PM Khan and one of the persons involved in the recent negotiations and talks.

The people involved in the recent efforts to break the deadlock between Khan and the powerful Pakistani administration included: food and real estate American-Pakistani tycoon Tanweer Ahmed, PTI USA senior leader Atif Khan, Sardar Abdul Sami, Dr Usman Malik, Dr Saira Bilal and Dr Mohammad Munir.

The American-Pakistani, who held direct one-on-one talks with Khan in November last year, has been a personal friend and donor of Khan for nearly two decades and frequently met him when he was the premier.

He played a key role in coordinating the delegation from the US to Pakistan. Credible sources have shared interesting insights into what happened during the course of these two meetings.

During the November meeting last year with the American-Pakistani, Khan accepted the need for an understanding with the government and the establishment and almost agreed to a settlement of the issues — until he was assured in the same week that millions would join the long march on Islamabad, creating enough chaos to bring the system to the decisive negotiations.

According to the sources, three senior KP leaders — including Ali Amin Gandapur — provided assurances to Khan during the jail meetings that millions would storm Islamabad, ensuring his release on the PTI’s terms. Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi was not in the picture, and no decision was made at that time about her taking part in the march.

Khan, said the trusted sources, was so convinced about the success of the march that he decided to end the talks with the American-Pakistani — and sent a stern message to the government officers that he hoped the street agitation and reaction would decide his fate.

The Adiala jail sessions, facilitated by the government officers, were aimed at convincing Khan not to go down the route of street agitation and also to accept a few other demands, including the May 9 responsibility and action on his social media team.

The talks failed, and that march ended in complete disarray and damaged the PTI to the extent that it has still not recovered from its impact.

After the deadly events of November 2024 in Islamabad that involved Bushra and Gandapur fleeing Islamabad to KP as live bullets were fired, efforts started in the US to reach out to the senior Pakistan government officers to discuss Khan’s release and a normalised working relationship with the PTI.

The efforts were led by Ahmed, who has donated $9 million to Islamabad’s National University of Science & Technology (NUST), and Atif, who convinced the doctors from First Pakistan Global NGO to travel to Pakistan, for the meeting.

Atif travelled to Dubai but didn’t enter Pakistan. Those who reached Pakistan held two sessions: one lasting for three hours and the second one lasted for around five hours, knowledgeable sources said.

“Release Imran Khan and other imprisoned PTI leaders and allow us to meet Imran Khan,” this was the demand of the delegation members, according to the sources.

They were told by the two government officers that no such wish would be accommodated. The group then talked about the campaigns it had launched in the US and indicated it would continue with its campaigns.

They were told that all their campaigns — described as ‘anti-Pakistan’ — had failed at all levels, yielding no results other than the publicity for the individuals involved.

Read more: Imran, Bushra Demand Speedy Hearing in £190 Million Case

They were told that the only beneficiaries of their campaigns have been some YouTubers who have made dollars by hyping up about these events, making money and moving on to the new campaigns.

A lot of ice broke the following day, and it was agreed that the matters would be resolved through engagement, and the PTI leaders outside of Pakistan will not do things — such as the targeted campaigns, that somehow damage Khan’s chances of coming out of jail.

It was agreed that the PTI leadership in the US would rope in some PTI social media activists and harness them away from some YouTubers.

One of the meeting participants had informed a former anchor and YouTuber, now based in the USA, about his travel plans and who he might meet and also that voices should be raised if he goes into silence.

The delegation — Ahmed, Dr Bilal, Dr Malik Usman, Muhammad Munir — left for the US via Qatar after the meetings were over on a positive note.

A storm started on social media when the YouTubers, aligned with PTI, got confirmation from one of the participants that the meetings did take place.

A war started within the PTI social media, questioning why the delegation travelled to Pakistan for the meetings. They were accused of treachery on X, accused of betrayal on YouTube and bracketed with the enemies on Meta.

While the meetings became controversial as one after another programme was done, several key people within the PTI and the delegation came out emphasising that those interested in their fame and earnings had no care for Khan and what he was facing.

After Ahmed and Atif were accused of treachery, both responded strongly.

Ahmed thanked all the delegation members and PTI USA leaders for understanding why such a meeting was important, but he attacked the social media influencers and critics.

It is the opinion that each delegation member was personally motivated to help improve the situation, but blamed self-proclaimed PTI supporters and social media influencers for disrupting the initiative to gain more views on YouTube through their sensationalist narratives.

“These people would lose thousands of dollars in daily earnings if the delegation’s meetings yielded positive results and if Imran Khan is released. They don’t care about Imran Khan. They care about their views only. Imran Khan’s release on bail would primarily harm these YouTubers, who are currently undermining Pakistan’s reputation for personal gains,” as per Ahmed’s post on X.

Former premier’s adviser on international affairs, Atif, explained in a social media post that certain people within the PTI are against the engagement with the government officers because they do not want Khan to be released.

“They fear losing their political influence dollars,” he said.

He said he was not apologetic about encouraging Dr Munir, Dr Saira, Mohammad Munir and Malik, who had travelled to Pakistan to play their role in breaking the deadlock.

Atif said that senior PTI USA leader Sajjad Burki also believed it was the right move and supported the initiative.

In the latest development, PTI leader Azam Swati fully endorsed dialogue with the establishment and stated that Khan was fully in favour of talks to ease tensions.

However, PTI Secretary General and renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja emphasised that Swati was expressing his personal views and Khan made no such suggestion. He said Khan stood by his demands.