Foreign Leaders Won’t Be Invited to the Oath-taking Ceremony of Imran Khan: Pakistan

On August 11, leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Fawad Chaudhry said that in the Oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Imran Khan, no foreign leaders will be invited.

In the July 25 election, cricket-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf came out as the largest party, but with a shortage of a few numbers to take power without an alliance.

A report earlier suggested that the 65-year-old wanted to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with SAARC leaders.

But on the other hand, Fawad Choudhry, a spokesperson of PTI said that the information regarding the invitation of Narendra Modi is false and that it will be a simple ceremony that will be held at Aiwan-e-Sadr or President’s House.

Mr. Chaudhry said that with austerity Imran Khan has asked for the oath to be staged.

He said that in the ceremony no foreign personalities will be invited and that it will be a completely national event. There will be no show of extravagance at the event and only a few close friends of Imran Khan will be invited.

Actor Amir Khan and former cricketers Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Navjot Singh Sidhu were invited by the legendary cricketer. Mr. Sidhu called Imran Khan ‘a man of character’ after accepting his invitation. Although confirmation of Amir Khan accepting the invitation is still unknown.

Imran Khan, while addressing the nation after his victory, said that he had pledged to take austerity measures to save taxpayers’ money and to stay in the sprawling Prime Minister’s House, he would be extremely ashamed.

Earlier, Imran Khan was congratulated by PM, Modi on his party’s victory in the general elections in Pakistan and hoped that to open a new chapter in bilateral ties, India and Pakistan will work together. Better relations between India and Pakistan would be ‘good for all of us’ was said by Imran Khan in his victory speech.

In the recent years, ties between the two countries have been strained over terror-strikes by Pakistan based groups, especially Kashmir’s Uri attacks, after which surgical strikes were carried out by India on terror launch pads across the LOC.