RAWALPINDI: Jailed former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan has alleged that the country has turned into a “police state” while the prevailing conditions are even harsher than those witnessed during martial law. “This is martial law which is much stricter than the martial law of [former military rulers] Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf,” Khan said, complaining about the PML-N-led incumbent government during an informal chat with reporters in Rawalpindi’s. Adiala Prison. Last week, the ousted prime minister, who has been behind bars for more than a year, described the martial law regimes of former military rulers Pervez Musharraf and Zia-ul-Haq as “better” than the current democratic set-up. The ousted prime minister said the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats made everything clear. He added that the effort to keep the former ruling party out of the election and remove her party from the country’s political landscape had been “fully exposed”. He has repeatedly criticized the administration led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for not being “legitimate”, citing the alleged interference and rigging of the February 8 public opinion polls. Throwing shade at the coalition government, Khan said the subordinate judiciary has complete control over the current rulers. He further claimed that any judge who was not under the ruler’s control was transferred. The former prime minister also claimed that the judge who was to decide the May 9 cases was also replaced. Expressing displeasure over the lack of response from the courts, Khan claimed that PTI’s request to hear its petitions against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) change case was also rejected. He also argued that the amended Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Rules were promulgated to “subvert the democratic process of determining the hearing of cases”. He was referring to an amendment to the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Order, 2024, approved by President Asif Ali Zardari last week, which gave the chief justice additional powers to appoint judges as committee members and assign cases. The cricketer-turned-politician also revealed the plan for his party’s upcoming protests and power show. He said the PTI would register a protest for judicial independence on Thursday, followed by another demonstration on Friday. He added that there would be a show of force in Rawalpindi on September 28 and warned that his party would respond strongly if permission for the public assembly was not granted.
