Says any PTI ticket holder or office-bearer not participating in protests has no place in party.
ISLAMABAD – Incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday said it was his mistake to extend the tenure of then Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Speaking to a group of journalists and lawyers at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder also ruled out any possibility of getting an underhand deal to secure his release from jail to go abroad. “My name should be permanently included on the no-fly list as I will not leave the country,” he said. I would have left the country had I been involved in alleged corruption like President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif did, he said.
He claimed the country’s democracy had been compromised after the judiciary lost its independence through recent tweaks into the constitution and the laws made by the government. He urged the need for ensuring transparent elections, independent judiciary, supremacy of law and accountability to bring real democracy in the country.
Khan went on to say that the government has “overpowered” the Supreme Court through 26th Amendment, adding that former Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja helped it in stealing the public mandate. Now, this de facto regime has got passed the constitutional amendments from the parliament to ensure its survival, he also said.
The jailed politician called upon his party to prepare itself for a protest movement that will be led by the present leadership. “Any ticket holder or office-bearer not participating in the protest has no place in the party,” he said. He advised his followers that they would have to make sacrifices to get their rights, independence of judiciary and “real independence.” Underlining that he had been illegally jailed for the last many months, he said democracy in Pakistan would face a dead end forever if they did not stand up against the rulers.
“I am even ready to be tried before a military court,” he said, noting he wouldn’t give in at any cost.
At the end, he congratulated Donald Trump for his election as the 47th President of the US, saying his victory was welcoming for Pakistan. “I hope that President-elect Trump will remain neutral and not act like President Joe Biden who believed in the lobbying, which was done against me by (former Pakistan envoy to Washington) Hussain Haqqani on behalf of General Bajwa,” he said. The matter of my release from jail would get resolved in Pakistan and not by the US, he emphasised.
