Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that he had advised to end the personalised campaign on social media to have the political temperature down.

“I had told Khan Sb that personalised campaigns should not run from your and PTI social media accounts,” he said while appearing on Rubaroo which was aired on Aaj News on Friday.

“I told him this in the first meeting. We should not do this ‘target killing’ if you want to improve the environment,” Fawad said and claimed that Khan had questioned the authority of the incumbent government.

He went on to add that people in Punjab were blaming the establishment for the raids on people and the crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders.

“It takes two to tango. While I am urging PTI and Imran Khan to end personalized campaigns to lower the temperature, there should not be press conferences from the other side. If you label PTI as ‘anarchic’ and ‘fitna,’ then how can we expect any change?”

The former information minister met with the PTI founder in Adiala Jail in December when several former party leaders appeared in court in cases related to the May 9. In his tweet, he claimed that Khan warmly welcomed him. It was his first meeting with his former party leader after the February 8 general elections.

After the meeting, Fawad clarified that he had not joined the PTI, but supported Khan.

In reaction to his interviews and statements about the PTI, the former ruling party disassociated itself from Fawad. There were also reports that Khan had warned the former information minister of making statements against the party.

While appearing through a video link for the news programme, Fawad said that the establishment has failed to end Khan’s “popular narrative”.

He claimed that the £190 million case would have no impact on the PTI founder and would increase his popularity among the people.

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Former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair was also on the show through a video link. In response to a question related to conflicts within the PTI, he said that Khan’s party should accept that its party “cannot behave like a normal party” under the circumstances.

“We should expect a lot of confusion and a lot of misunderstanding as the incumbent leader is new,” he said.

When asked about the aforementioned case, Zubair wondered why did not Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reverse the previous cabinet decision if it was about the state funds. He said that the cabinet should have reversed it and asked the attorney general for Pakistan to approach the court and inform that Khan’s cabinet had made a wrong decision.