President Arif Alvi’s recent statement regarding the PTI chief Imran Khan’s claim of foreign conspiracy has irked his party leaders.

“I sent that letter to the chief justice. I am convinced that there must be a probe on it. I am not convinced on the fact that a conspiracy was hatched. But I have my doubts [and] there must be a probe,” President Alvi said in an exclusive interview with Aaj TV’s Asma Shirazi for her programme Faisla Aap Ka on Monday.

The interview brought Alvi among the top trends on social media, drawing responses from the government and the opposition.

Alvi, who called for a “broader consultation” on the appointment of the next chief of army staff (COAS) in November, said that his affiliation with the PTI was a thing of the past.

“President Alvi gave the wrong statement at the wrong time,” PTI leader Fayyazul Hassan Chohan said in an interview with Sidra Iqbal at the Aaj News morning show. “He should not have given such a statement. He [president] sent the cipher to the chief justice. The president suddenly had a dream that he felt nothing.”

Chohan added that Alvi was not a party leader, on whose policy the party has to work. “The party leader is Imran Khan and he has the party leadership.”

He said that the cipher has not gone missing and claimed that it was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while responding to a query if the PTI’s mindset was changed after reports that the cipher was “missing”.

In a tweet, Fawad questioned that if the PTI government was not ousted through a conspiracy then why the government was “running away from the investigation.”