ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Saturday it had elected Barrister Gohar Ali Khan as new chairman after he was nominated for the post by the ex-premier who has been in prison since August on charges ranging from corrupt practices to leaking state secrets.
The intra-party polls, which have been described as controversial by PTI critics, were held after Pakistan’s election commission ordered Khan’s party to hold them within 20 days to retain cricket bat as its election symbol.
This led to political quandary for PTI officials since some of its members pointed out it would not be possible for Khan, the founding leader and chairman of the party, to run for the post after being disqualified to hold public office in a case involving the illegal sale of state gifts during his tenure in power.
“Intra-party elections conducted,” the PTI said in a brief statement while announcing results.
It informed that Barrister Gohar had been elected unopposed while Omer Ayub Khan had won the contest for the party secretary-general.
The results also named the provincial PTI presidents, saying Dr. Yasmin Rashid would lead the party in Punjab, Ali Amin Gandapur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Munir Ahmed Baloch in Balochistan and Haleem Adil Sheikh in Sindh.
“I will fulfil chairman’s responsibilities as Khan’s successor and representative,” Barrister Gohar said after the announcement of results. “There are 170 political parties in the country who have been presenting [internal] election results to the Election Commission of Pakistan since 1960. However, their intra-party polls have not be scrutinized like ours have.”
The new PTI chairman said the Pakistani people were watching these developments, hoping it would ultimately lead to an end to political “persecution.”
“This position is with me as a sacred trust until Khan is back,” he added.
One of the founding PTI members, who later fell apart from the ex-PM and other party leaders, however, dismissed the polls even before they were organized.
Akbar S. Babar described the exercise as “selection, elections,” promising to hold a news conference to share “important facts” about the intra-party polls later today.
PTI’s rival party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), also raised objections to the conduct of elections.
PML-N leader and former federal information minister, Mariyum Aurangzeb, told the media the “selection process” only took 15 minutes.
She maintained the intra-party polls were held at a secret place and lacked voters, voter lists and presiding officers.

RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s legal team on Saturday accused the officials of a high-security prison in Rawalpindi for flouting court orders by not ensuring adequate media presence during his jail trial on charges of divulging state secrets, saying today’s proceedings could not be called an “open trial.”
A special court established to hear what has popularly come to be called the cipher case has been conducting the trial inside the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since Khan was indicted under the Official Secrets Act last month after the government said he could not be moved to a courtroom for security reasons.
However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled last week such hearings were illegal and ordered an open trial with media access.
A large number of journalists were present to attend the special court proceedings at the prison facility Saturday morning, though most of them were disappointed after the authorities only called three local journalists in to witness the trial.
“It was directed by the Islamabad High Court that an open trial in the cipher case will be given to Imran Khan,” the ex-PM’s lawyer, Intazar Hussain Panjutha, told Arab News. “But unfortunately, today’s hearing was in the violation of the order of IHC.”

“The proceedings were held in a similar manner as they were being held prior to the declaration of IHC,” he continued. “We protested this, we resisted it before the court. It was not an open trial.”
Asked about Khan’s morale, he said the former prime minister was in high spirits and looked confident.
“He was waiting for the hearing to start and he was waiting for the media to come in,” he added.
Khan’s spokesperson on legal affairs, Naeem Haider Panjutha, also weighed in, saying the cipher case hearings could not be described as part of fair trial.
He informed the three journalists were allowed to witness the trial only after Khan’s legal team boycotted the hearing.
“Khan said this is not a fair trial,” he said. “Fair trial means giving access to the media. Media is public. Media should be given permission [to cover the proceedings].”
The former prime minister, who is the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is being held at Adiala jail where he is serving a three-year sentence in a separate case in which he was convicted in August of failing to disclose assets earned from the sale of state gifts while he was PM from 2018-2022.
Khan is also accused in a number of other cases, including the cipher case, which relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan says was proof that his ouster as PM in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022 was part of a US conspiracy to remove him. Washington has repeatedly denied Khan’s accusations.
Khan, arguably the most popular politician in the country, has not been seen in public since he was arrested in August. Prior to that, he regularly addressed his millions of followers via social media and held massive public rallies and protest marches.
The court adjourned its hearings until Monday.