Umar confirms Imran will not attend APC | The Express Tribune

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan will not attend the All Parties Conference (APC) called by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, party General Secretary Asad Umar said on Friday. 

Talking to media personnel outside the Lahore High Court (LHC), Umar stated that Imran will not attend the conference and questioned how the former premier could sit with the incumbent government while false cases were being filed against the PTI.

PM Shehbaz called an APC on February 7 and invited all the national political leaders, including Imran Khan, to mull on the growing threat of extremism and terrorism.

The prime minister’s decision to summon the APC to discuss ways to overcome the current national challenges and invite all national-level political leaders, including the PTI chief, has come days after the Peshawar police lines carnage, which snuffed more than 100 lives when a suicide bomber blew himself up during noon prayers inside a mosque.

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Previously, former premier Nawaz Sharif had convened a multi-party conference in Peshawar after the APS massacre and invited all parties represented in parliament, including the PTI, to join hands and forge a renewed commitment to fight terrorists and extremists.

ECP ‘bound’ to hold polls

Asad Umar further said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was bound to conduct polls and that the ongoing economic conditions could not interfere with elections. He added that elections will be announced in Punjab by Thursday.

The PTI leader instructed party workers to prepare for the election, and said that holding by-elections in 90 days had been “cleared”.

He hoped that the decision will be in “our favour at the next hearing of when the elections should be”. He added that the Punjab governor and the electoral watchdog believed that the elections should be held in 90 days but were not ready to give a date.

He said that the ECP itself wrote that 54 days are required for preparation, however, the government was deliberately trying to create confusion.