ISLAMABAD: PTPs central information secretary, Sheikh Waqqas Akram, on Sunday claimed the party`s founder, Imran Khan, never relied on foreign intervention to secure deals, like his political rivals.

Mr Akram named President Asif Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who he claimed had `negotiated deals` in the past to leave the country to avoid imprisonment.

The PTI leader was responding to the allegations levelled by PML-N leader Khawaja Asif and PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The former had claimed the PTI founder was an `asset` for Israel, while the latter said foreign powers were targeting Pakistan`s nuclear and missile programmes underthe guise of supporting Mr Khan.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Akram said the two leaders were targeting the PTI founder `to garner public attention and media coverage`.

He said Mr Khan consistently opposed foreign conspiracies and interventions.

He reminded Mr Asif that he used to call the PTI founder `Taliban Khan` and then started labelling him an `Israeli asset`.

PML-N used to call Mr Khan `a project of the army`, Mr Akram said, and asked: `By calling Khan an Israeli asset, are you trying to accuse the Pakistan Army of supporting the PTI at the behest of Israel?` He claimed Mr Asif`s repeatedly made statements that `embarrassed Pakistan on the international stage` despite him holding key position as defence minister.

Mr Akram called the PPP chairman an `angry political child` and warned him to refrain from censuring Imran Khan, who is a `leader of international stature``[President] Zardari has a history of exploiting his politically immature young son as a tool to pressure PML-N into mal(ing concessions by unleashing him to target Sharifs to gain leverage in negotiations,` Mr Akram claimed.

Mr Akram also claimed that the PTI founder`s rivals privately acknowledged that he sacrificed his comfort for Pakistan`s `greater good` and admitted the bitter truth that only `he was a political reality`.

Mr Khan is a leader of `international stature`, while his critics were `mere pawns unleashed by their masters to unnecessarily criticise him,` Mr Akram said, adding the political decline of Sharif and Zardari families was imminent.

On the coalition of PPP and PML-N, Mr Akram said this `power-hungry clique` didn`t enter the `marriage of convenience` to serve the nation`s interests but to `deliberately push Imran Khan out of the political landscape`.

`Their sinister plan ultimately backfired, as they failed miserably in their attempts to sideline him.