RAWALPINDI: Imprisoned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Tuesday said his party is ready to negotiate with the military.
The PTI founder, who appeared in the Adiala jail court for the hearing, said: “We are ready to hold talks with the army. The army should nominate its representative [for talks].”
Khan, who has been jailed for almost a year, said his party had never leveled allegations against the army but only criticized the armed forces.
He further said that if any PTI worker was found guilty in the May 9, 2023 riots, the authorities should punish the individual.
Khan reiterated that the incumbent government wanted to destroy his party by driving a wedge between the PTI party and the armed forces.
Asked why he sought talks while criticizing the army and why he did not seek talks with political parties, he said: “What is SIFC? Who is Mohsin Naqvi? There is undeclared martial law.”
Khan said that Interior Minister Naqvi was “their” representative and that he “got to this position because of them”.
He then claimed that he would never deal with Naqvi as he and the Punjab Inspector General (IG) were “oppressing” his party.
In his statement, the PTI founder also called Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz a “fascist”, while pointing out the arrests of party leadership across the province.
Referring to his arrest last year, the ousted prime minister claimed that he was “kidnapped from the judicial complex” and “Islamabad Chief Justice (IHC) Aamer Farooq declared it legal”.
He asked the IHC CJ to dispose of his cases. Khan appealed to the judiciary and said his cases should be transferred to all other high court judges except Justice Farooq.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Punjab Chief Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb slammed Khan’s call for talks, saying the “self-proclaimed revolutionary figure” had moved from his previous stance of “I will not seek forgiveness” to an apologetic tone.
The Punjab minister asked on what issues the PTI founder wanted to hold a dialogue with the army.
Referring to the violent protests of 9 May, Aurangzeb asked the jailed ex-prime minister to apologize to the army for “attacking GHQ, martyrs’ memorials, the Corps Commander’s house and the airbase instead of demanding talks”.
Reacting to Imran’s “fascist” remarks against the Punjab CM, Aurangzeb said, “A fascist is an individual who violates the constitution to stay in power. A fascist is a person who arrests a daughter in front of her jailed father to torture a political opponent.”
She went on to say that a “media predator” and one who stopped free speech could be labeled a “fascist”.
Responding to Imran’s allegations, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said the PTI founder was himself a “fascist ruler” who had jailed more than 100 PML-N leaders in political cases.
She added that PML-N leaders did not abandon Nawaz Sharif and the party despite facing arrest. On the other hand, PTI leaders held press conferences to announce their exit from the party founded by Imran after spending only one night in jail, she criticized.
Bokhari asked Imran not to throw the burden of his “crimes, failed rebellion and anti-Pakistan conspiracies” on CM Maryam. She said those responsible for the “failed rebellion” on May 9, 2023 will be held accountable.
The latest statement comes a day after Khan backed his earlier statement that he had ordered his party work to stage a peaceful protest outside the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi before his arrest last year.
The PTI leadership refuted media reports about Khan’s admission, claiming that the party founder “did not say what was reported in the media”.
On the same day, the previously legally installed PTI leader also came up with a new stand on the 2022 ‘only animals are neutral’ statement.
“Neutral does not mean animal, it means apolitical. I wanted to say that the army is non-partisan,” he said, referring to his remarks at a rally in Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when he was prime minister in 2022. .
