LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar has said that a systematic campaign has been launched against PTI Chairman Imran Khan to divert the people’s attention from the economic meltdown; the country right now was in the grip of unprecedented inflation and growing unemployment.
He expressed these views while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday; he was flanked by PTI senior leaders Umar Ayub and Andleeb Abbas. He also disclosed that the PTI chief had given a political invitation to the government for negotiations and they were waiting for a response.
The former federal finance minister further said that every day a new case was being registered against Khan and other PTI leaders. “An FIR was lodged against PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Fawad Chaudhry for holding a press conference; they had nothing to do with the Toshakhana nor foreign funding cases,” he added.
“The government was deploying new tactics to pressurize the PTI chief; 76 cases have been registered against him and its aim was to expose him in the open by calling him to the courts. The PTI chief appeared in all court hearings till four months ago,” he added.
According to him, the former Prime Minister was waging a struggle to uphold the rule of law. On November 3, an assassination attempt was made on Khan. Before this attack, he (Khan) received reports from ‘inside’ that an attempt would be made to assassinate him which later Khan disclosed during the party’s public meetings.
The PTI chief was still receiving confirmed reports that his life was in danger. As per the information, there was a fear of an attack on Khan while going to the courts and thus this risk was particularly high when going to courts. Hence, the government was making attempts to expose Khan in the open by registering police cases against him.
Umar further said that many of the people in the party were of the strong view that keeping in mind the current threat to his life, Khan should not go to the courts. “The legal risk was low if he skips a court hearing while the risk to his life was high if he went to the court.
Hence, it has now been decided that petitions would be filed in the Lahore and Islamabad High Courts today to request them to either provide foolproof security which was not possible or Khan should be allowed to attend the hearing through video link,” he added.
He pointed out that the killer who tried to assassinate the party chairman was allowed to attend a hearing via a video link and surprisingly the victim was not given that option, adding when Khan appeared in the Lahore High Court and Judicial Complex, proper security arrangements were not seen. When asked about Craig Murray’s tweet,
Umar said he was a British Ambassador and hence his voice carries weight. “If Murray was saying that a foreign agency was involved in the removal of Khan’s government then this was big news. The government should have called a meeting of the security council on this news.” Khan has no health problems, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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