Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asad Umar said that the ongoing political crisis cannot be solved without the involvement of the Supreme Court and the army. He was speaking in Muhammad Mallick’s current affairs show on Hum News on Wednesday night.

Answering a question about whether the ultimate solution would come through the institutions, Umar said the PTI’s principled position was that both the top court and the armed forces should have no political role whatsoever.

However, he frankly admitted that the current crisis could not possibly be solved without the institutions.

The PTI started its long march on Friday from Lahore. Addressing big crowds along the Grand Turk (GT) Road, party head Imran Khan has repeatedly said that the march’s objective is to force the incumbent coalition government to announce early elections in the country. The former prime minister, who was ousted in April, has repeatedly attacked what he calls an ‘imported government’.

However, since the DG ISI Lt. General Iftikhar Anjum appeared in a press conference a few days before the march began, Khan’s language for the army has acquired a serious undertone. The government has accused the PTI chief of ‘attacking state institutions’. PML-N leaders, including Maryam Nawaz, have suggested the real aim of the march is to get a favorable army chief appointed.

While the debate around the role of the judiciary and military in politics has intensified, the PTI continues to tiptoe around the issue. Umar seemed to continue this stance as he split his answer on the institutions’ role into short-term and long-term periods.

“The practical reality is that these two institutions are the ones who will take you out of this crisis, so they will have to play their role at this time,” he told Mallick.

However, he did add that the sphere of influence for both institutions had expanded way too much. “As part of our forward progress,” he said, “the institutions will have to go back to their constitutional role.”