ISLAMABAD: The incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday sought live streaming of the new cases approved by the Punjab government against him for allegedly building a narrative of hate against the military, saying he would defend himself in the court instead of hiring a lawyer.

This was stated by the counsel for Imran Khan, Intizar Hussain Panjutha while addressing a presser along with PTI spokesman Raoof Hasan.

Quoting Khan, Panjutha said that “Hamoodur Rehman Commission was not compiled by Imran Khan [...] the 1971 debacle had damaged the military the most due to blunder of Gen Yahya Khan, who was later booted out by the military itself.”

Speaking on the occasion, Raoof Hasan said that the delay in the ruling in Iddat case has apparently shattered PTI’s hopes of Imran Khan’s early release from jail despite bail in different cases.

“The state institutions are openly trying to keep Imran Khan in jail despite his bail in several cases, which is unfortunate,” he regretted.

Reacting to the inordinate delay in announcing a reserved verdict in Iddat case against Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi by a local court, he alleged that establishment’s pressure on state institutions is piling up.

Hasan said that Imran Khan should have been released from jail after his sentence was suspended in the Toshakhana case, but the delaying tactics under one pretext or another to release him shows “they are afraid of him.”

Similarly, Hasan said PTI Vice Chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was booked in additional cases related to May 9 when his release from prison was certain. He said the PTI was not in conflict with the institute of the army but ‘an individual’. Referring to the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report on the 1971 fall of Dhaka, he said that the report did not contain anything against the military.

He said then military ruler General Yahya Khan put the state at stake to prolong his rule. He said that over 200 politically motivated cases were registered against Imran Khan but they miserably failed to get anything meaningful against him.

“Therefore, now in utter frustration, NAB raided Malik Riaz’s Bahria Town Rawalpindi office to pressure him to an approver against Khan,” he lamented.

He commended Malik Riaz for not submitting to their coercive tactics to become an approver against Khan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024