LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has urged the establishment not to escalate the situation as it would not serve any purpose.

“There is still time; talk and be wise. The only solution to this crisis is elections. Those who could make this happen, I appeal to them to save the country by holding elections,” he said while addressing his party supporters through a video link here on Wednesday.

Earlier, he expressed concern over the possibility of his arrest in his tweet, saying, “Probably (this would be) my last tweet before my next arrest. Police have surrounded my house.”

In his address, he said the government had alleged that 40 terrorists were taking refuge at his residence; if there were 40 terrorists here, his life was also in danger. “Please do come here, but in a civilised manner and do not attempt to storm my residence,” he said, adding if the police came with a search warrant to carry out an operation at his residence, he would not show any resistance. However, he believed the government was creating a ground to attack his home.

On reports of PTI leaders leaving his party, he averred that if ‘someone’ believes that this strategy would work, they should look at this while pointing towards a sheet in which it was depicted that 70 percent of the Pakistanis supported the PTI Chairman. “No one could write off the party that enjoys 70 percent popularity,” he added. He accused the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of creating a wedge between his party and the army.

“I defended the army at international forums; criticising the army is akin to criticising his own children. The PDM is delighted to see the current situation, as they think it would delay the elections. Everyone should realise what was happening in the country and let the sense prevail. The confrontation between the PTI and military would unleash a huge backlash, proving detrimental for the country,” he added.

Referring to the May 9 mayhem, Khan claimed that his party workers tried to stop people from burning down the fighter jet model in Mianwali. Still, the miscreants did not stop, adding that they soon approached the high court to request a probe under a judicial commission and have evidence now (that shows the PTI was not behind it). “We saw people everywhere who did not belong to our party and had pistols. They were instigating people to attack the Lahore Corp Commander’s house,” he further claimed.

He also claimed that so far, 25 people from his party had been killed in the protests, whereas 700 received bullet wounds and were hospitalised while 7,500 party leaders and workers, including women, were in prison.

“Whatever happened on May 9 was part of a plan. The IG Punjab should be called and asked what had happened at Jinnah House. It is easy to identify faces these days with facial recognition. You can use NADRA’s data and identify people, but that can only happen through an independent investigation; a transparent investigation would reveal the truth,” he said, claiming that they (while mentioning who) wanted to attack Jinnah House to make a ground to ban the PTI and put its leaders behind in jail.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023