PTI leader Asad Umar defends his meeting with banned outfit chief

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asad Umar who is electoral contestant from NA-54, has clarified his position on his meeting with leader of Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a militant group banned by the United Nations and also by Pakistan.

“Facebook writing is incorrect and a mistake by my team. We had a meeting which was attended by ulema of other sects, too, including Shia and Barelvi,” he said, after sharp criticism from opponents and supporters and allies alike.
The official Facebook page of the party titled on NA-54 Islamabad has said Fazlur Rehman Khalil has joined the PTI. Above the picture of Asad Umar and Fazlur Rehman Khalil and his followers in a marquee where the meeting was arranged the text written in Urdu states: “Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil has joined the PTI along with scores of clerics. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil has made the decision to join the PTI while extending support to Asad Umar, the party candidate from NA-54, with the commitment to forward the efforts to make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state in true sense.”
Khalil also denied the social media reports that he had joined the PTI, but admitted that he along with his followers would support the PTI candidate.
“We have only extended support to Asar Umar in NA54 because we respect him and we will try to help him,” said the cleric who hails from Dera Ismail Khan and now settled in Islamabad after establishing the large Khalid Bin Walid seminary on its outskirts. He leads Ansarul Ummah, which is also a member of the Defence of Pakistan Council.
He was among the pioneer fighters of the US-led West proxy war in Afghanistan against then-USSR aka ‘Afghan jihad’ in the 1980s and one of the founders of Harkatul Mujahideen al Islami (HuM), but now heads Ansarul Ummah, which is said to be a front organisation of HuM.
HuM is a designated international terror outfit and Khalil, too, was a proscribed person under the Fourth Schedule though his current status is unclear. HuM was also banned by Pakistan. One of his close aides said that Khalil was not in the Fourth Schedule.
He said Khalil was supporting Asad Umar on personal grounds. “We respect Gen Umar sahib [PTI candidate’s father]. He was an upright man and Khalil sahib had good relations with him,” he said while clarifying their position after the meeting with the PTI candidate.