New Delhi: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded an independent investigation into the riots that took place on May 9 in which clashes broke out at several places in the country and the home of a senior army commander was looted, Dawn reported.
In a speech that he delivered after he was granted relief by the Islamabad high court, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader said he was well aware of the elements who wanted to create tension and take advantage of the atmosphere thus created. He alleged that at the behest of those elements, only several senior leaders of his party along with 35,000 workers have been jailed.
He also accused men in plain clothes of joining PTI protesters just for provoking them, on May 9.
He alleged that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had lodged a case of corruption against him and his wife without any evidence and termed it unscrupulous and shameless.
آپ جب پیدا بھی نہیں ہوے تھے، تب میں ساری دنیا میں پاکستان کو رپریسینٹ کرتا تھا- عمران خان کو ۵۰ سال سے لوگ جانتے ہیں
چیئرمین تحریک انصاف کا ڈی جی آئی ایس پی آر کو جواب 1/2 pic.twitter.com/LJ3zXHgRhi
— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 13, 2023
Khan alleged that his country’s army was behaving like a political party, and therefore, it should instead form a formal political outfit. Commenting on the allegations of ISPR, a unit of Pakistan’s army, Khan said its spokesperson was not even born when he was playing for Pakistan.
“I kept Pakistan’s flag high world over,” the former cricketer said. “Never has ISPR made such a statement. You should be ashamed of yourself. You have jumped into politics. Why don’t you make a [political] party,” he added. Khan also said that no political party could be eliminated by intimidation of imprisonment.
Khan said, as per rights granted in the constitution of the country, he was well within his rights to file a complaint against whom he thought had facilitated the attacks against him. He was responding to ISPR’s comments that he had made baseless allegations.
He said that his party would not accept slavery anymore and continue the jihad to earn “Haqeeqi Azadi”. Khan expressed grief at the death of scores of his party workers and said, “We will visit the families of all those killed and injured and collect money to help them in the long run.”