Jailed ex-PM calls for release of violent incidents footages to identify attacker. Says he will apologize only if his party workers found guilty of violent attacks. No issue if Army doesn’t want to engage with PTI for talks as ‘we also have no desire for it’.
ISLAMABAD – Incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan Wednesday asked the authorities to come up with the evidence of May 9 riots, in what seems to be an escalation of tension or continuation of stalemate between the powerful establishment and the former ruling party.
The ex-premier called for the release of close-circuit television (CCTV) footages to verify the involvement of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members in the violent attacks against civil and military installations.
“If any such footage proved the involvement of any PTI member in the mayhem, I will not only expel him from the party but also apologize,” he said while talking to media inside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail during a court hearing. The former prime minister said that he would apologise if the PTI activists were found involved in the violent protests on May 9.
While many see the statement of Khan as an offer of conditional apology from him, the content of his informal talk shows that the jailed leader came down hard on the military establishment for its stance on the violent protests.
The PTI chief, who has been incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, has time and again distanced his party from the protests, alleging that the riots were pre-planned and staged to launch a crackdown on the opposition party. Referring to a recent statement of the military spokesman that there was no change in the stance of army that those involved in this mayhem must be held accountable, the ex-premier said that PTI would never apologize over such incidents as it was not guilty at all.
In the past, the spokesman had said that the army would not engage with the PTI until the party formally apologizes for its alleged involvement in the May 9 violence. Khan went on to say that PTI has no issue if the army did not want to engage with the party, adding that they also don’t want to talk to them.
“An injustice was committed with us, thousands of our workers were sent behind the bars and we were not allowed to contest the election independently,” he said.
He further said that PTI was actually the victim of May 9. “We want justice,” he said, adding that it was their legal right to hold a peaceful protest before the General Headquarters (GHQ) and the cantonment board.
He sought an apology over his arrest from the premises of Islamabad High Court by paramilitary Rangers, calling it an attempt to abduct him.
He questioned why only the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Armed Forces, was held in high regard. “Whether the head of Pakistan’s most popular party has had no respect,” he said while referring to himself.
Khan said that ISPR was a national institution but the public had turned against it due to its alleged actions. “The public is standing on one side and they are looking towards other side,” he said
He feared that President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif would flee the country like former prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina did. He added that all those politicians including himself should be placed on the no-fly list to ensure no one flees abroad in such situation. “I am foreseeing some big developments in the country after the incidents happening in Bangladesh,” he said.
Responding to a question, Khan said that his remarks about Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman declaring him innocent in the breakup of Pakistan into two parts were based on the findings of Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report.
