Imran Khan says ‘hit by 4 bullets’ but won’t give in

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan here Friday said that after his recovery, he will resume the ‘long march’ towards Islamabad.

In a televised address for the first time from the Shaukat Khanum Hospital after surviving an assassination attempt, he said: “Everyone should be ready and wait for my call,” he said, adding till then, the people should continue with protests till the three persons involved in the assassination attempt (Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior military officer) resign from their posts.

Khan also appealed to the nation to break the shackle of ‘slavery’ and wage a ‘jihad’ against the corrupt government and injustice. He claimed that he was aware of the assassination plan in advance. He accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior military officer of plotting to assassinate him in Wazirabad or Gujrat. “The investigation into the attack cannot proceed when these three persons remain in their offices,” he added.

Providing details of how ‘they’ planned to assassinate him, Khan said that they used similar methods they tried using against former late Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. “They tried to accuse me of blasphemy to turn the public against me,” he added.

Imran Khan stable after being injured in assassination attempt during PTI long march

Recalling the attack on him, he said that there were at least two volleys of gunfire aimed at him: “After the first burst of gunfire, I was struck and fell, and the second volley of gunfire was let loose and bullets flew over my head”. He claimed that the attack came from two sides; one attack came from his left while the other came from in front of him. “The man who was arrested was probably part of a larger group of assassins,” he alleged.

On this occasion, the PTI Chairman urged Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to put the country first; “act now to prevent the country from heading down the path of destruction”. “If you do not take action against ‘black sheep’, the nation will start breaking apart,” he said, adding that he only believes in a ‘constructive criticism’.

He also addressed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial by saying that the leader of the country’s biggest political party was being denied justice and hence he should take notice of it. “The way I have been treated in the last six months, it has never been seen before in the country,” he complained.

Recalling the events leading to the disintegration of Pakistan in 1971, he said that East Pakistan became Bangladesh after the biggest political party was denied its right to form a government. “If the military could unite the country, East Pakistan would not have broken away. Only political parties unite countries,” he added.

He claimed that the PTI was the only political party in Pakistan that could unite the country, as it represents all the federating units. He reiterated that free and fair elections should be held in the country.

At the beginning of his address, Khan started berating the incumbent government and lamented how his government was ousted through a motion of no-confidence. He also repeated that an American official threatened to remove him and later his government was toppled through a no-confidence motion, adding that the people voted him into power because they were completely fed up with existing political parties.

“The government could have never lost the no-trust move, but the coalition leaders used the money to become successful. The PTI-led government also had the financial means to engage in horse trading but refrained from doing so,” he added.

Khan again accused the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of taking sides with the incumbent government to sideline the PTI. The ECP became a tool of the coalition government to disqualify him in the Toshakhana reference. In the July 17 by-election, the ECP resorted to all sorts of rigging tactics. They used all tactics to discredit me, resorted to mudslinging and filed cases against me, he alleged.

He claimed that the accusations levelled against him in the Toshakhana case were baseless, as all the records were available in the Toshakhana. “Despite knowing nothing could be stolen from the Toshakhana, the ECP disqualified me in that case because they wanted to create a level-playing field for Nawaz Sharif,” he added.

He maintained that his party would approach the court against the ECP’s decision to disqualify him and alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja was a “servant of the Sharif family”. Before beginning his address, his doctor, Dr Faisal Sultan gave a brief about his health condition and revealed that four bullets hit him. He displayed Khan’s X-ray reports on a screen and highlighted the details of the injuries that the party chief sustained, including a fracture, among other injuries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022