Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said that a party with public support doesn’t need the Establishment’s crutches, adding that he is willing to talk with everyone except “thieves”.
In an interview with BBC Urdu on Thursday, the former premier said he only wanted elections to be held in the country as per the Constitution, adding that he was willing to speak to anyone in this regard except thieves.
While responding to a question about his “intention” to meet the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Asim Munir, the PTI chief said it was being reported that he wanted an audience with the new chief but “I don’t need establishment, the party which has public support doesn’t need crutches”.
“When asked what I will do if the establishment says it wants to talk to you, I said I am a political person and can talk to everyone except for those thieves (PDM government),” he added.
He, however, maintained he never invited the army chief or Shehbaz Sharif to talks.
“A statement has been circulating that I want to talk to the army chief [but] I don’t need the establishment,” he said.
When asked if the establishment’s opinion of him had altered as a result of the change in military command, the former premier responded, “That didn’t make any difference to us.”
In fact the former premier claimed that their problems have increased after the appointment of the new army chief.
“It didn’t matter to us, cases were filed against us during the tenure of General (retd) Bajwa. Never before that, had there been so much custodial torture against senior citizens. We thought there will be a change, but there has been none, rather problems increased for us,” he said.
Earlier, PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry stated that the former PM had never requested a meeting with COAS Munir, calling the rumors in this regard “baseless”.
He further said they [the ruling parties] wanted me disqualified or jailed so that they could win this election. “The nation was against the ruling parties, so I won the 2018 election. And after this inflation, these parties have been buried.’
Khan claimed that the incumbent government is using violence as a tactic to run away from the election, adding that the job of the caretaker set-up is to conduct elections and it has no authority to postpone them.
He said that the government is unwilling to hold polls despite the Supreme Court (SC) order to organise elections within 90 days.
The former premier Khan maintained that the current rulers want him to disqualify or sent him to jail so they can win elections.
