Former DG ISI Lieutenant General (retd) Zaheerul Islam on Sunday announced support for former prime minister and PTI Chief Imran Khan.
According to ARY News, the former ISI chief said that supporting Imran Khan was the need of the hour.
Lt Gen (retd) Zaheer-ul-Islam held a function in honor of PTI candidate Shabir Awan at his ancestral home in the Motor area of Kahuta.
Shabbir Awan is contesting by-election from PP-7 (Rawalpindi) as the PTI candidate in his native town in the Kahota area.
He joined the party in 2011 for the PP-7 by-elections, which falls under the NA-57.
Raja Sagheer Ahmed is the candidate for the PML-N.
Addressing the gathering, former DG ISI Zaheer-ul-Islam announced his support for PTI candidate Shabir Awan in the by-elections and launched a regular election campaign for him.
The by-election in PP-7 Rawalpindi is scheduled to be held on July 17 after 25 PTI members voted against party lines during the recent election for the chief minister of Punjab, including 19 other constituencies.
Former DG ISI Lt General Zaheerul Islam addresses PTI workers’ convention ahead of by polls to be held in one of provincial seats in Rawalpindi next month. pic.twitter.com/W2dyOn70OP
— Zahid Gishkori (@ZahidGishkori) June 26, 2022
Soon after, reports surfaced that he had apparently waded into the political sphere and ‘joined’ a political party.
But, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry dispelled this impression and told Dawn, “there was no truth to rumours that Gen Islam had joined the PTI,” adding that “he was merely expressing support for a PTI candidate who happened to be a relative of the retired general.”
Read more: Ex-generals should return medals if they want to join politics: Maryam Nawaz
However, Gen Islam has not commented on these reports so far.
It is worth noting that Gen Islam remained ISI chief from March 2012 to Nov 2014. During this time, it was speculated that he had provided tacit support to the PTI during their sit-in outside parliament and remained a part of negotiations held to try and seek a peaceful resolution of the sit-in, Dawn reported.