Rawalpindi: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and Chairman Imran Khan has confirmed the protest outside GHQ and issued a clarification.
During an informal conversation with journalists in Adiala Jail, Imran Khan stood by his statement regarding the protest outside GHQ before May 9 and clarified that he had called for a peaceful protest outside GHQ.
He said that his statement about the protest outside GHQ was presented as if he had admitted to or committed a crime related to the May 9 events.
He stated that he had called for a peaceful protest outside GHQ in three video logs and mentioned it 12 times during police investigations.
Imran Khan said that his house was attacked on March 14, and there was a plan to kill him outside the Judicial Complex on March 18, for which he has evidence.
He told his party that if the military and Rangers arrested him, they should go and peacefully protest outside GHQ and cantonments.
A journalist questioned that he had called for a peaceful protest, but on May 9, there was no peaceful demonstration; instead, there was vandalism and arson.
Responding to this, Imran Khan said that the protest was not peaceful because there was a pre-planned agenda.
The CCTV footage is not being presented because our people are not in the footage, and our innocence will be proven because the faces in the footage belong to others.
Imran Khan said that protests occur where there are issues, not outside police stations. He is going to court regarding the theft of the May 9 CCTV footage.
He is filing a case against the Rangers for how a former Prime Minister was abducted from the premises of the High Court and who ordered the Rangers to arrest him and to beat the party Chairman.
He mentioned that the government has started a crackdown on social media, arresting even a 75-year-old cancer patient, Rauf Hassan.
The investigation on social media will be conducted by those who came to power through NRO 2 and Form 47, and they are trying to create a clash between the military and PTI. If a transparent investigation is to be conducted, a judicial commission should be formed.
The founder Chairman said that the government is afraid of PTI and wants to eliminate it through the military. The government’s credibility has ended after the recent budget.
Imran Khan said that social media is the voice of democratic people, and the public’s voice should not be linked with digital terrorism. If no institution is criticized, it will be destroyed.
A journalist questioned, “During your tenure, you legislated to impose penalties for speaking against the military.”
Imran Khan responded that there is a difference between criticism and ridicule. No journalist left the country or was killed during our time. Even Pervez Musharraf’s liberal era was better.
The journalist asked if this means that open criticism of national security institutions should also be allowed.
Imran Khan responded that every institution, whether it is a national security institution or any other, should be criticized. The judges who ruled in our favor are being praised on social media.
Imran Khan said that the Pakistan Army is not of the PML-N or PPP but of Pakistan. If the military stands with the Form 47 government, its credibility will be affected.
The military standing with Form 47 people is detrimental to the country, economy, and democracy.
In response to another question, Imran Khan said that everything that happened to us and is happening is because of the establishment.
The way our path was blocked in the Election Commission could not have happened without the establishment. Nawaz Sharif’s corruption cases were all suddenly dismissed.
In another response, Imran Khan said, “We negotiated before, but it yielded no result. What they are doing to us benefits our party.
Jamaat-e-Islami has done a great job protesting against inflation and electricity bills, and I support Jamaat-e-Islami’s stance.”
Imran Khan said that we were not allowed to hold a rally in Islamabad, and our workers are being arrested. Since we are not allowed in Islamabad, we have decided to hold a major power show in Swabi on August 5. We will hold a rally on the KP and Punjab border on August 5, with participants from all over the country. We chose Swabi for the rally because the current situation demands no chaos, and if any party has public power, they should show it by holding a rally in Swabi.