He added that reconciliation does not mean rolling over. “That doesn’t mean you go loggerheads with the establishment, with the military leader,” Bukhari said. “You control your own hurt. You curb your own pain. You swallow it for the betterment of your country.”

Why it matters

PTI supporters have long blamed Munir for Khan’s 2023 jailing, and Khan himself has previously called the army chief “mentally unstable.” A shift in tone from someone as close to Khan as Bukhari suggests the party may be testing the ground for a truce, even if it is not clear Khan shares that view.

The comments follow a Supreme Court order this week directing authorities to move Khan, 73, from prison to a private hospital within 48 hours, a decision analysts see as a possible first step towards easing tensions. Bukhari called the ruling a “new ray of hope” and said PTI would follow the court’s instruction that party workers stay away from the hospital. As of Thursday afternoon, Khan had not yet been moved.

Bukhari said there have been no direct talks between PTI and the military. But he suggested the door was open. “If Munir woke up one fine morning and said, ‘Enough, I need to show I’m the father of the nation at the moment,’ then he could rub his healing hand on to the country,” Bukhari said. “I would feel that every political prisoner would be out within 24 hours.”

Analysts caution that Khan’s own position may not match his aide’s. Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it is unclear whether PTI’s leadership can “present a common front in any potential engagement or negotiation with the state” while Khan remains in jail. Much of the party’s structure has been weakened by arrests, and many former officials are still behind bars.

Bukhari, who lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai, said he last spoke to Khan eight months ago. Khan has been held in conditions human rights groups describe as solitary confinement. In comments attributed to him last November, he called Munir “the most tyrannical dictator in history” and said he would “neither bow down nor submit.”

Despite the softer tone, PTI plans to go ahead with a nationwide march on September 27, regardless of whether Khan is moved to hospital. The party wants his court-ordered treatment carried out, access for his family, doctors and lawyers, faster hearings in his cases, and eventually his release. Bukhari said senior PTI leaders now in hiding would join or help organise the protest. “You’ll probably see a lot of leadership come out of hiding,” he said. “Even if you don’t see them, you’ll see them mobilising.”

Khan has faced several legal cases since losing power in a no-confidence vote in 2022. Most convictions have since been suspended or overturned, with appeals still pending. He denies all wrongdoing.

(With inputs from Reuters)