LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that former Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to extend his tenure, but Nawaz Sharif opposed it.
In his address through video link, he made it clear that the conspiracy against his government is not from America but from here.
Taking a U-turn on his earlier stand in which he blamed America for the ouster of his government in April 2022, he said that the conspiracy against us did not start from America, it was done from here.
Imran said that Hussain Haqqani was hired to lobby against us. He said that I was declared anti-American through lobbying, after which a cipher came from America and things moved forward.
Releasing the white paper, the PTI chief compared the country under him a year ago and now under Shahbaz.
He said that the PTI government faced several challenges, including the Covid issue. The present government could have multiplied the hardships of the people if the covid crisis had happened during its tenure.
During the PTI government, Imran said the economic challenges, which were inherited from the PMLN government, were addressed. “We have dealt with the most crises unlike the current government.”
The Russian President sent his Energy Minister to Pakistan and decided to buy fuel from Russia at cheap rates, but unfortunately conspiracies started against our government.
He said that these rulers have come to power only to protect themselves from corruption cases.
He said that 480 billion rupees were recovered during the PTI government while the present government passed a law to prevent its corruption.
He destroyed the institution of NAB by making Raja Riaz the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and damaged the reputation of the Parliament.
He said that the entire record of Tosha Khana is available and this case against him was made by the Election Commission of Pakistan only to please the rulers. He said that the Tosha Khana case will bring Nawaz and Zardari to book, not him.
Imran claimed that the PTI government ensured media freedom. From the day the current government assumed power, media houses and even the owners have been threatened. He added that the speeches of the leader of the largest party were blacked out.
He said that on May 25 (2022), worst violence was done on political workers, women and children. Ali Amin Gandapur was implicated in a treason trial on frivolous charges, he said, adding that such talk has made us laugh all over the world.
3100 PTI workers were arrested, Azam Swati was stripped and tortured which is a clear violation of the right to dignity. Imran absolved the police of the treatment of Azam Swati and said they were not involved.
He said that such cruelty did not happen during Musharraf’s tenure.
He said that warrants were issued for Bani Gala in Islamabad and the DIG raided his Zaman Park residence in Lahore instead. The plan was to kill him by raiding Zaman Park or the Judicial Complex, Islamabad. The former prime minister alleged that if this plan did not work, plan B was to detain and poison him.
He said that initially a blasphemy campaign was launched against him and an FIR was not registered despite knowing the three criminals behind the murderous attack on him in Wazirabad.
Imran Khan, while issuing a white paper against the current government on the completion of one year since the dismissal of the PTI government, warned that if the elections are delayed, the people will come to the streets. He said that the one-year performance of the present government is in front of everyone and said that elections are the only solution to the current problems facing Pakistan.
The former prime minister said that when the PTI government was sent home, there were the same judges who were there then. He wondered how a country would invest in Pakistan if people do not have faith in the justice system.
Imran said that the impression is being given that he wants to create instability which is completely wrong as he believes in change through political process and elections.
The PTI chairman said that the rulers feared that if they were arrested, their popularity would increase further and they planned to eliminate them like Murtaza Bhutto’s murder. He said that 144 cases have been registered against him.
