Regime change conspiracy initiated in Pakistan, not US: Imran

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that the “regime change conspiracy” against his government was hatched in the country, not the United States, Aaj News reported.

In a televised address to mark the one year since the ouster of his government through a no-confidence vote, Imran implied that his government was tricked into hiring Hussain Haqqani for lobbying in the US.

“A year ago today, I left the Prime Minister’s House with my diary, but there was a huge conspiracy behind this. We were told to hire Hussain Haqqani to lobby for us. He, however, portrayed former army chief General Qamar Bajwa (retired) as a pro-US, and me as an anti-US personality,” Imran said, adding that the conspiracy against his government was initiated in Pakistan with PDM being part of it. The US was asked to send cypher to base his ouster on it.

The PTI chief said that the army chief gave NRO-2 to the “cabal of crooks” in return for another extension.

“After coming into power, they abolished National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and used the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to spread a false propaganda against him on foreign funding and Toshakhana. But now they will be trapped themselves as they’ll have to make their vehicles public that were “stolen” from Toshakhana,” he said.

Comparing his tenure with one year of the PDM government, Imran said the country travelled from terrorism to tourism in his government, while the “cabal of crooks” got their corruption cases worth Rs1100 billion closed.

“When we took over the government, the country’s economy had gone bankrupt, but we not only put the economy back on track but also efficiently fought the global pandemic of coronavirus, which is recognized by the world.

“Despite the global inflation after the pandemic, our country progressed well in the last two years of our government. The economy that was growing at 6% last year, has now slowed down to 0.4%,” he said.

He said the current rulers removed their names from the exit control list (ECL) and used NAB and FIA to harass and their opponents.

“Overall, 144 cases have been lodged against me. Cases were lodged against PTI leaders like, Shahbaz Gill, Senator Azam Swati, and other workers.”

“Sedition case was filed against Ali Amin Gandapur. The government was bound to give me security but it failed. They issued a warrant for Bani Gala’s residence and the DIG raided Zaman Park. They tried to assassinate me like Salman Taseer.”

The former premier alleged that the joint investigation team (JIT) was sabotaged after a gun attack and later they attacked the residence. “They wanted to kill me like Murtaza Bhutto.”