LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has made a passionate plea to the nation to stand against oppression and be prepared to take part in a struggle for “haqeeqiazadi” (true freedom).
While addressing the nation on social media here on Friday, the former prime minister said that a system based on oppression cannot continue; if the nation does not rise against oppression then Allah does not allow that nation to continue; right now Pakistan is treading on the path of destruction.
“Thus, we have two options, follow a path of slavery that leads to destruction or pursue ‘haqeeqiazadi’ through a struggle which would bring prosperity; Pakistan was standing at a critical juncture and we have to decide right now to secure our future,” he added.
Talking about the post-mortem report of PTI Bilal Ali alias Zil-e-Shah who was killed allegedly during “police custody,” he said that it was a disturbing and horrific report; a special child who had no enmity with anyone was tortured to death by “unknown” people for the crime of being a political worker.
Without naming anyone, he observed that since the appointment of one “certain person” on a powerful post, incidents of oppression have increased in the country.
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He recalled the names of PTI leaders Shahbaz Gill and Azam Swati, and the late journalist Arshad Sharif who were victims of state oppression.
“Gill was still recovering from torture and abuse while Swati was severely punished in front of his family for just one tweet.
Moreover, Sharif was killed for pursuing investigative journalism,” he said, adding that several people working writing on social media were tortured and harassed for expressing their opinions while journalists were being pressured and in some cases humiliated.
“The ‘certain person’ who was supposed to be a counter-terrorism expert has been appointed on a particular post with the sole task of harassing and torturing political workers; only a psychopath could carry out horrific torture on political workers and innocent people,” he said.
Talking about the police crackdown on the recent PTI rally, he pointed out that it was obvious that once the date of the election in Punjab was announced, political parties were bound to start their election campaigns; after mutual consultation, the administration had approved the route for their rally and subsequently, the PTI workers started to gather at Zaman Park to participate in it on March 8.
“To our surprise, the administration used brute force against the PTI workers to stop our rally. The caretaker Punjab government’s actual real heinous plan was to sabotage the elections and falsely implicate me in a murder case, which they have succeeded by accusing me of the murder of Zil-e-Shahm,” he claimed.
The PTI chief averred that Pakistan, especially the PTI, was facing the worst kind of state oppression; the PTI was being denied their right to election campaign while their opponents were given the freedom and assistance to carry out their election campaigns without any questions asked.
“Our workers were being put behind the bar and many fake cases were being registered against me with the sole aim of pushing us out of the election race; through terror ‘they’ were trying to reimpose the ‘thieves’ on the nation,” he added.
He also claimed that the police were pressuring the father of Zile-e-Shah to withdraw the murder case; all efforts were being made to cover the murder of Zil-e-Shah even though evidence shows that he was in police custody before his death.
“The police anonymously sent a message to us that they were not responsible for the killing, some unknown people were involved in it,” he added.
He questioned why unknown people were trying to cover up the murder of Zile-e-Shah and Arshad Sharif and derail the investigation of his assassination attempt. He maintained that they would sit silently on the murder of Zil-e-Shah; they would pursue the case.
“We would file a case against caretaker Punjab Minister MohsinNaqvi who planted in Punjab, the IG Punjab and CCPO Lahore,” he added.
He averred that the courts’ orders were being flouted by the caretaker government in Punjab with the support of the “unknown” people.
“Who were these powerful people supporting the interim government to flout the courts’ orders; who were these powerful people supporting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor who was refusing to announce a date for elections in KP,” he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023