Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Tuesday heavily criticized the party’s chief organizer for Punjab, Aliya Hamza, after she posted on X about a recent event in Lahore attended by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
Speaking with media outside Adiala Jail, Raja said Hamza should not have tweeted about the Lahore event, warning he would not tolerate similar social media posts in future. He maintained attendance at a press conference hosted by Gandapur in Lahore was not mandatory, adding he had only attended because it wouldn’t be appropriate for the chief minister to address the gathering alone.
If anyone wished to join, they could have done so, he claimed, adding people who have made “mistakes” should apologize. “Aliya Hamza’s job is to mobilize Punjab … let her do her job. Aliya Hamza’s job is not to tweet,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a posting on his official X account, incarcerated PTI Patron-in-Chief Imran Khan reiterated his call for a nationwide movement against “tyranny,” alleging both he and his wife Bushra were facing severe restrictions in prison. Alleging that a “colonel and the jail superintendent” were withdrawing facilities for the two at the behest of Field Marshal Asim Munir, he instructed his party to hold the Army chief “accountable” if anything happens to him.
In his post, he directed his party—beset by infighting—to set aside personal differences and focus on the “protest movement,” warning he would take action against them after his release if they failed to do so. “I instruct all party members and officials to retweet my Twitter messages themselves and ensure that these messages reach as many people as possible,” he added.