“God forbid, if martial law is imposed then with whom Imran Khan will run a campaign. Every option is available in third-world countries,” he said while appearing on Aaj News show Rubarro on Friday.

He was speaking about the “gossip in Islamabad’s drawing rooms”. Many political experts and the government believe that the PTI government was brought to power in 2018 with the help of the establishment after the 2014 sit-in.

Last year, ex-PM Khan claimed that ex-army chief retired General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the “super king” behind all decisions. PTI Secretary Information Raoof Hasan in an interview with Spotlight with Munizae Jahangir earlier this week stated that his party was “not given the power but only the government” during their tenure.

Chaudhry, who hosts Kal Tak on Express News, said that gossip was that an emergency could be imposed in the country judges would take oath under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and former PTI leader Jahangir Tareen would become the prime minister to run state affairs.

He went on to add that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might dissolve the assembly after feeling that his decisions were not being implemented. Chaudhry cited the premier’s “quit” comments while meeting the Federal Board of Revenue officials in the federal capital.

All the stakeholders should sit together, the journalist said and added that they would have to sit together “at any cost.”

While citing some reports, Chaudhry said that PTI leader Latif Khosa was still trying to settle matters between the PPP and the PTI. But the analyst said that the Sindh-ruling party would demand Bilawal Bhutto Zardari be the prime minister in case of any agreement between the two parties.

Ad hoc judges appointment

When asked, he said Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa wanted to increase the number of judges to clear the jail petitions as the Supreme Court does not have much time to hear such cases. “This has been choked from 2014,” he said.

Chaudhry added that the PTI does not agree with this and fears that the new judges would influence the bench formed to ban it after the government approaches the court.

“Ban on PTI cannot be sustained as it’s a bigger political party and democracy will be sabotaged,” he said and added that the top court would ask the government why it was bringing a two-year-old issue now.

When asked about the timing, the analyst said that the government wanted to prove that Khan and his followers would not get any space “come what may.” He was of the view that it was a fight between the state and the courts. “Honestly, there are 125 judges in the judiciary, including high courts and the Supreme Court, and the majority of them are with Imran Khan. A basic reason for this is that they are also from the public and they are aware of the public pulse. Pulse is with Imran Khan.”

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The Kal Tak host added that it was a “fight of ego” and called for sitting together to resolve issues.

He stated that the decision to ban PTI was taken in haste. “Nawaz Sharif’s view is not clear. Some people say Nawaz was not in favour of the ban. Shehbaz had taken someone’s message to Nawaz and he convinced him that if we don’t do this then we will lose our government. After this, he gave consent and Attaullah Tarar addressed the press conference.”

According to Chaudhry, the formation of the bench on the PTI ban case would show whether the party would be banned or not.