• Heavyweights were scheduled to visit PTI founder this time, but none of them turned up
• Sheikh Waqas says it’s possible they were thinking they wouldn’t be allowed to meet him
• Raja faces online trolling after responding to Aleema’s criticism
• PTI slams govt over unscheduled loadshedding
ISLAMABAD: While trolling of PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has started on social media after he passed remarks against Aleema Khan, not a single leader, including the party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, managed to reach Adiala jail on Thursday to meet its founder Imran Khan.
The apex court has allowed PTI leaders to meet Imran on Thursdays and family members on Tuesdays. The party leaders have been facing severe criticism for many months, as they usually nominate second- or third-tier leadership to meet Imran on Thursdays. All of Imran’s sisters have consistently been going to Adiala jail on Tuesdays, but they are usually denied meetings with him.
However, for the meeting on Thursday, falling on April 16, it was decided to include heavyweights to stop criticism of the party leadership.
The list sent to Adiala jail Superintendent Sajid Baig, available with media, included the names of PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Sardar Latif Khosa, Babar Awan, Hamid Khan, Intizar Panjotha, and Salman Akram Raja.
It was expected that Raja might not reach the jail because of the trolling against him on social media. However, no other leader bothered to reach Adiala jail by 4pm, which was the cut-off time for the meeting with Imran.
A day earlier, Raja announced that he would send his resignation to Imran due to criticism from the party founder’s sister, Aleema Khan. Raja has been facing severe criticism on social media ever since.
When contacted, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told media that Barrister Gohar was in Lahore to meet the family members of leaders who were in Kot Lakhpat Jail, and Mr Raja was busy in court, making arrangements to obtain bail for party workers who were recently arrested.
“I am not aware of the reason why other leaders did not go to Adiala jail. However, it is possible that they were thinking they would not be allowed to meet Imran Khan,” he said.
While reacting to Wednesday’s incident in which Mr Raja spoke against Aleema Khan while replying to her allegations, Mr Akram said it seemed both were frustrated because of the ongoing situation.
“I can only say that Imran Khan’s family members are also PTI workers, and similarly, party workers are family members of Imran Khan. They are all worried about the PTI founder and want him to be released at the earliest,” he said.
PTI slams govt
Meanwhile, Akram criticised the government over unscheduled loadshedding across the country. In a press statement, he said it was astonishing that a country with nearly 46,000MW of installed capacity was unable to meet a demand of around 16,000MW.
He added that it was even more shocking that the government had failed to honour its own announcement of limiting loadshedding to 2.5 hours.
Instead, he stated that Islamabad witnessed more than four hours of outages, major urban centres of Punjab such as Lahore, Faisalabad, and Kasur suffered up to eight hours, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country endured 16 hours or more without electricity.
Akram stated that artificial stability through borrowing was no reform, adding that the government continued to project the rollover of a $3 billion Saudi deposit and remarks by the IMF as major achievements.
He warned that Pakistan’s GSP+ trade status could be jeopardised due to concerns over human rights and enforced disappearances, adding that the government’s actions were putting the country’s economic future at risk.
He said the government was highlighting a $1.07bn current account surplus for March as a sign of recovery, whereas the year-to-date surplus had shrunk to negligible levels and the trade deficit for nine months had surged past $25bn compared to $21bn last year.
He maintained that this stability was heavily dependent on remittances rather than productive economic activity.
Akram stated that out of a Rs1 trillion allocation for the Public Sector Development Programme, only Rs588bn has been released and merely Rs414bn spent in nine months.
Diplomatic momentum
Akram welcomed the continued diplomatic momentum following the initial round of talks in Islamabad between the United States and Iran.
He said that recent high-level engagements by Pakistan with key regional capitals, including visits to Tehran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, reflected the state’s proactive and balanced diplomatic outreach aimed at de-escalation and consensus-building.
He expressed hope that the expected second round of talks in Islamabad in the near future would build on the progress already achieved and help address the remaining differences.
Published in media, April 17th, 2026
American Dollar Exchange Rate