PTI founder Imran Khan wants his wife Bushra Bibi to be the prime minister, if not him, journalist Javed Chaudhry has said, citing them as two core issues of talks with the establishment.

“Khan Sb wants to make her [Bushra Bibi] PM,” he said in an interview with Shaukat Piracha on his show Rubaroo aired on Aaj News on Thursday.

He was responding to a query related to the dialogue between the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Khan’s party has expressed its openness to talks, but only with “genuine stakeholders” and described the government as “pygmies”.

The government has maintained that the PTI was not serious about talks and vowed to punish the perpetrators of the May 9 riots.

According to Chaudhry, the PTI was divided into two groups: one including old party leaders and the other having new leaders comprising lawyers.

The journalist claimed that Khan did not want to lose new men as he needed them to fight his legal cases. He added that some of the PTI leaders were in talks with the establishment without the nod from Khan.

He was of the view that the former prime minister was seeking the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), wondering why he would have talks in which Gohar Khan or Omar Ayub would be the PM and he would remain in Adiala Jail.

At one point in the interview, he suggested that there should be an “army system” in the whole country as the institution had a “meritorious” system of recruiting cadets where not even the army chief could interfere.

He claimed that more cases related to the May 9 riots would be filed against the former prime minister in the near future. “Courts will not be able to give him relief and there will be legislation before it.”

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When asked, Chaudhry claimed that the PTI was double-minded as on the one hand, the PTI was staying away from the May 9 events and on the other hand giving tickets to the suspects of riots.

He further claimed that a judicial commission would be formed, but added that the party would run out of it because it would not accept the judge, report, and the investigation.

Chaudhry, who hosts Kal Tak on Express News, said that the PTI and the government would sit for talks next year. He claimed that technocrats like Irfan Siddiqui, Shibli Faraz, and Azam Nazeer Tarar would talk with the PTI.