Imran Khan 'indecent' text row: Pak MNA refuses to appear before tribal jirga

Islamabad: Former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader and MNA Ayesha Gulalai reiterated claims that party chairman Imran Khan had been sending her "indecent, inappropriate messages" during an interview for Dawn News.

She further entailed about how the decision of finally slapping the charges against Imran Khan came around.

"As my father was a professor, he started the discussion in a decent way; but Khan refused to accept his mistake and tried to divert the discussion," she said, adding that "the messages continued to come in after the meeting. As a result, I was turned off from politics and went off screen."

Refusing to provide further details, she said that Khan initially used to send her "inappropriate and indecent" messages, but later talked about a marriage proposal before her father intervened in the matter.

Gulalai said that she always responded in a decent manner.

"I also expressed my anger and at times adopted a harsh tone. What the bottom line is that me and my family suffered mental torture due to the entire episode. It was the main reason behind my decision to quit the party," she reiterated.

Gulalai said that Khan did not propose to her directly, but "talked about it in a veiled manner in his text messages," in the interview to Dawn News.

"He proposed to me before his wedding with Reham Khan," she claimed, adding that "after he parted ways with Reham, in July he again tried to contact me indirectly".

"I spoke out for the sake of Pakistani women. I did not do any thing wrong," she said, defending her decision to go public with the matter.

Gulalai added, "They call themselves unbiased but have launched a [vindictive] inquiry against me in the provincial accountability commission. Till Sunday, the PTI circles considered me a fair person who was struggling against corruption: now, all of a sudden, I am this bad person to them."

"They have launched a campaign against me, they have activated a private channel and have won over some individuals against me while promising them party tickets or money. They have asked them to issue statements against me," she claimed.

"They do not have any proof against me, so they are changing statements. At times, they say that it [the press conference] was done after my meeting with Amir Muqam. Then they said that the issue was based on the NA-1 party ticket and then they said that the dispute was in connection with fundraising. At least they should stick to one allegation," she said.

Talking about the proposed jirga, she said that she knows the culture of jirgas very well as she herself had led a few. "A handful of people will assemble there under their own agenda. Why would I appear before any meeting of such a group of people?"

She claimed that a larger tribal jirga had recently approached her and expressed their desire to summon the members of the jirga called by the PTI leader, but she had asked the tribal leaders to be patient as she was not willing to take things so far.

Reiterating a statement she made earlier, Gulalai said that she will forgive Imran Khan "if he accepts his mistake" and apologises for sending her unsolicited text messages.

"If Imran Khan accepts that he has done it and seeks forgiveness from God, the nation and its women, I will forgive him," Gulalai said, adding that it would not matter even if he apologised in private.

Earlier, Malik Jalal Khan Wazir, a member of grand tribal jirga from North Waziristan Agency to which Gulalai belongs, asked her to produce relevant evidence about the allegations she has levelled against Khan.

Tribesmen warned that they will besiege the house of Gulalai.

"Gulalai neither belonged to Waziristan nor was she a tribal woman, because whatever she had done during last four days was against the norms of tribal people," the Dawn quoted Wazir, as saying.

"We cannot expect a tribal woman to adopt such lifestyle. The woman is unaware of the South and North Waziristan Agencies because she is not a resident of the tribal region," Wazir claimed.

The tribal elder asked Gulalai to present her Blackberry to any relevant forum to clear her position. He said her allegations against Imran had earned her disrespect in the hearts of people.

He asserted that according to their tribal tradition,daughters are not allowed to show up before media or irrelevant people. But, he said Shamsul Qayyum, the father of Gulalai, used her for the sake of money only.

Jalal Wazir demanded for an inquiry against Qayyum for bringing a bad name to the tribal people for his own personal interests. "The tribal people want to know as to how much money Gulalai has taken for levelling such allegations," he demanded.

Wazir claimed that Gulalai's statement about Imran Khan sending her inappropriate messages on her mobile had not only insulted the Pakhtuns but also disgraced a large number of women workers affiliated with PTI.