LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that his party’s ‘long march’ will resume on Tuesday (tomorrow) from Wazirabad where he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt last Thursday.
While addressing a press conference from the Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, the PTI chief said that he will address the march every day and that in the next 10-14 days the rally will reach Rawalpindi from where he will lead the party’s ‘Haqeeqi Azadi’ march.
He appealed everyone to come out and participate in the march. Imran Khan said that he wants a transparent investigation into the Wazirabad incident but an FIR has not been registered yet.
He claimed that police was ready to register a case against the PM and interior minister Rana Sanaullah but not Major General Faisal. The PTI chief said that there are people in Pakistan who are above the law. He demanded a transparent investigation and maintained that only a probe would determine “the truth”.
He said that Punjab police under the provincial government keep on giving excuses and are not registering the case.
Will give another call for long march once I recover, says Imran Khan in first address after attack
The PTI chief claimed that the men who had planned the attack were Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal. Referring to the DG ISPR’s statement, Imran said that it was “shocking” that the military’s media wing spokesperson said that criticizing a military official was akin to defaming the Pakistan Army. This means if I say a judge is wrong, this means the entire judiciary is wrong. If someone says there is a corrupt person in PTI and I say that you have said that the entire party is corrupt, he asked. “DG ISPR, have you noticed what you are saying,” he questioned. “Why does the army then carry court-martials?” he said adding that it is because an officer does something wrong which is why such a practice is carried.
Imran claimed that an attack on him was a conspiracy hatched by the three men he had accused of being behind it. “It is my right to register a case. If I can’t register an FIR, how can a common man do it,” he said, adding that only the powerful in this country are above the law and there is no justice for a layman.
The former prime minister welcomed the demand for a judicial commission by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“I welcome the judicial commission but what will it do? The three people that I have named are above the agencies that will investigate this assassination attempt. This is why I said that I want these people to resign so that the investigation is carried out transparently,” added the PTI chief. He claimed that is why he registered an FIR against the two PML-N leaders because he knew that they will use this accusation of blasphemy and “try to get me killed just the way former governor Punjab Salman Taseer was murdered”.
The PTI chairman furthered that as soon as the incident of attack took place, tweets were posted without any investigation that a religious fanatic did this.
The video interview of the attacker was then leaked; police say they were pressurized, the IG says it was hacked, he said, adding that all these ‘lies’ started pouring but only a transparent investigation will tell who wanted to cover up. Imran added that he thinks that nothing is better than a judicial commission but the first thing it should consider is how people who are accused are allowed to hold office where an independent investigation will take place.
Talking about slain journalist Arshad Sharif, Imran said he wants the commission to also inquire into the anchorperson’s killing. Arshad Sharif’s mother knows from whom he was threatened. Why was he forced to leave this country? Why was he forced to leave Dubai and move? All these questions need to be answered, he added.
Imran Khan said that the third thing that he wants to point out is the cipher controversy. “The DG ISPR said the cipher was a drama. If it was a drama then why isn’t an investigation being carried out,” he said.
He furthered that when the National Security Council had also confirmed that a cipher was received and had issued a demarche then why is DG ISPR saying that this was a drama.
Talking about the indecent video PTI Senator Azam Swati’s wife had received, the PTI chief urged the CJP to also investigate the incident. Imran said that the senator will sit outside the Supreme Court and demand justice. He maintained that other PTI senators will accompany Swati in the sit-in outside the apex court.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022