Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that he was ready to go to jail, but the government will not be able to cope with the fallout of this decision, Aaj News reported.
During an interview with Voice of America (VOA) Urdu, Imran claimed that the government wanted him out of electoral politics, and they were ready to go to any extent.
“They don’t want me to contest the upcoming elections, because they know that I will win the next election, and their politics will be over. This is why they want me out,” he said.
Imran said the government would either arrest him or try to get him disqualified on technical grounds.
When asked if he would like to go to the same prison where Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif was kept, Imran said he wasn’t afraid of going to jail.
“I have already survived an assassination attempt. I can go to jail as well,” but the government will not be able to bear the fallout of his arrest,“ he said.
The PTI chief said one of the options for them to compete against the “tyrant government” was street agitation. But they started the “Jail Bharo Movement” instead, as the country’s economy could not survive instability.
The former premier reiterated his stance that elections were the only option to come out of this economic and political quagmire but feared that the government would try to delay elections.
Imran’s statement comes days after he said that the ruling coalition was not serious about holding general elections.
In a meeting with various delegations of lawyers at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore, the PTI chief said he was fighting for the supremacy of the Constitution, as the postponement of elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be against the constitutional provisions.
Imran warned that his party would start the “Jail Bharo Movement” if elections were postponed.
He also urged the lawyers’ fraternity to play their role in the timely holding of elections in both provinces.
“The lawyers should be the front-runners in this struggle,” Imran remarked.