Aleema says ‘minus Imran Khan’ has happened as KP passes budget

Irked over the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passing the 2025–26 budget without the consent of the party’s jailed founder, Aleema Khan said it seemed that “minus Imran Khan has happened”.

Speaking to the media outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, Aleema was asked whether ‘Imran Khan is minus’ — a reference to the claim that the PTI founder has lost relevance in national politics — had happened. “I think, minus Imran Khan has happened,” she responded.

She made the remarks while reacting to the ruling alliance’s claims that Khan has become politically irrelevant.

Talking to journalists outside Central Jail Adyala, Rawalpindi, she said: “If the police want to stop us, let them. We are not afraid.” She said that the government feared reaching the PTI founder’s message to the general public.

Expressing her displeasure over the approval of KP’s budget without the nod of the PTI founder, she said: “We don’t know why [the KP govt] was in a rush to pass the budget.”

KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur-led government even did not wait for two days, she added.

“We don’t know what was hidden from the PTI founder in the budget. I am surprised that the KP lawmakers did not even discuss it,” she added.

Meanwhile, Aleema, along with the PTI workers tried to reach the Adiala jail to meet Khan but the police barred them from entering the jail premises.

‘Minus Imran Khan only over our dead bodies’: CM

Reacting to Aleema’s fresh statement, KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur said that no one could minus the PTI founder.

In a video statement, CM Gandapur said: “Minus the PTI founder will happen when we are not alive”.

The KP CM urged the party workers to recognise the party’s enemies and those who were “weakening the movement”.

In a veiled dig at Aleema, he said Khan, her wife, a large number of the party’s leaders and supporters were currently behind the bars but “few people” were focused on the agenda of weakening the PTI founder.

“Their agenda is to strengthen the enemies of the PTI founder,” said the CM.

Gandapur said that Khan did not stop him from presenting the provincial budget. He said that the KP government would be dissolved whenever Khan directs.

The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August 2023 after he was booked in multiple cases ranging from corruption to terrorism since his ouster from power via the opposition’s no-trust motion in April 2022.

Last month, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah had said that any prospects of a deal or relief for the PTI founder remained out of reach due to what he described as ‘extreme mistrust’ between the former prime minister and the country’s establishment. Speaking to The News, Sanaullah said that while rumours of negotiations or backdoor deals occasionally surface, the ground reality is starkly different.

“With such a level of mistrust, how can Khan be offered a deal or relief?” he asked, bluntly dismissing any speculation of a breakthrough.

Rana reiterated his long-held position that dialogue among political parties was the only viable path forward.