Who offered Imran Bani Gala deal?

• CM Gandapur denies demanding Khan's transfer to Bani Gala.
• There's no point in considering any such offer: Barrister Gohar.
• PTI has called for ex-PM to be shifted to KP, say sources.

ISLAMABAD: Who offered Imran Khan the deal to move him from Adiala Jail to Bani Gala? Such an offer has neither been made during the ongoing formal dialogue process nor through backchannel negotiations between the government and the PTI.

Informed sources said that during the backchannel negotiations, there has been a demand from PTI to get Khan shifted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it was not accepted by the government. This demand was made during a backchannel interaction between the two in November last year.

These sources insist that KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was keen to shift Khan from Rawalpindi jail to KP but it was not agreed by the other side. Gandapur, however, when contacted a few days back by The News categorically denied it and said that he never made any such demand.

"I don't know why my name is [un]necessarily dragged into this,” he said.

Recently, Khan is reported to have said that he was offered a deal under which he would be shifted to Bani Gala, his residence in Islamabad, to serve the remaining jail time. 

"[Imran] Khan said he was offered to be moved to Bani Gala. However, he stressed that he would not move anywhere until those detained without trial are released," Faisal Chaudhry, his lawyer, told reporters outside Adiala jail last week.

There is no explanation offered by any PTI leader about Khan's reported claim. There are no answers to the question of who made the offer to Khan. It is confirmed by The News that such an offer has neither been made during the ongoing formal negotiations between the government and the PTI nor it was offered by those from the government side engaged in the backchannel negotiations.

A local newspaper reported a few days back that PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan while confirming that there have been backchannel contacts, dismissed claims of an offer by the authorities to move the PTI founder from Adiala to Bani Gala. He said that the PTI founder considers his incarceration illegal so there was no point in considering such an offer.

Shifting Khan from Adiala to his Bani Gala house was discussed with The News recently by a key member of the government’s negotiation as a possible offer to be made to the PTI side if Khan accepts the present system's continuation till 2029, does not pursue his politics of agitation and violence and avoids attacking the army and the economy.

Senator Irfan Siddiqi, however, was of the view that no such option was discussed among the government negotiating team.

Originally published in The News