ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has terminated the basic membership of Salman Ahmad, a veteran Pakistani musician and close associate of the PTI founder, for “publication” against the incarcerated PTI founder’s family.
The former ruling party issued a notice accusing Ahmad of “sowing division and discontent” among party members and supporters through “unwarranted and slanderous posts” on social media.
He added that the party “dissociated itself from your conduct and your statements and warned you of the consequences of your conduct.”
“You have been constantly asked, among other things, through press releases issued by the PTI central committee, to stop publishing these objectionable messages.”
“And whereas you have continued to defy the instructions of the founding chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf despite repeated warnings to the contrary,” the text added.
Notifying its exclusion from the PTI with immediate effect, the party asked the activist to “never show any affiliation with the PTI”.
The famous guitarist had sharply criticized PTI founder’s wife Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in some of his posts on X, accusing them of mismanagement and accusing them of fleeing the scene during the party’s “last call” protest last month.
The former ruling party’s high-profile protest in Islamabad, aimed at securing the release of Imran, imprisoned for more than a year, ended abruptly last month with the arrest of nearly 1,000 supporters by the authorities.
The PTI and the coalition government shared responsibility for the violence during the high-profile protest that left four law enforcement officers dead in Islamabad.
The party founded by Imran Khan has since claimed that at least 12 of its workers were killed and more than 1,000 arrested. However, the government has categorically denied using live ammunition against the protesters.