LAHORE Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan to stand with the Constitution and uphold the law as the incumbent rulers were attempting to delay the elections and derail democracy.
“They might assassinate a notable personality or create a law and order situation through terrorism so that they could create grounds to delay the elections,” the former prime minister said in his press conference through a video link here on Thursday.
He averred that the rulers would try to find any excuse - financial constraint or consensus was incomplete - to avoid the elections; they fear losing the elections and they know that the people’s sentiments were against them. He feared that the mafia (the coalition rulers) would try to create division in the judiciary and subsequently make a way to delay the elections. “I know that all efforts were being made to create the division; this mafia either bought loyalties or eliminated their opponents by using foul tactics,” he added.
He assured the judiciary that the entire nation was standing behind the judiciary and pinned their hopes on them for justice; hence stay united and stand with the Constitution and uphold the law. “We have no hope from the imposed rulers and those who were backing them. Their intentions were clear because they wanted to derail democracy in the country,” he added.
He accused the government of incapacitating him and his party so that they could not launch an effective election campaign; the rulers were deploying all available tactics to put him behind the bar to suppress his voice.
He also revealed a conspiracy to make a way for the ‘thieves’ to return to power. “Wednesday’s action (against the PTI) was part of a conspiracy to prevent my party from carrying out an election campaign and put me in jail. Last night, the police orchestrated a plan to arrest me. The entire Zaman Park was cordoned off and suspended the electricity in the area; after arresting me they were planning to shift me to Balochistan. They intend to keep me in jail for over two months and in the meanwhile crush my party by intimidating and arresting the PTI leaders through controlled elections,” he said. He said after an outcry on social media about the death of their party worker Bilal Ali, the plan was abandoned. However, the plan has been delayed, but they will arrest me in the coming few days and he was not afraid of going to jail. He claimed that this conspiracy was an outcome of an agreement made by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (not naming with whom the agreement was made), under which he would be given a level-playing field in the upcoming elections. “The absconder had been demanding a level-playing field for some time and that was putting Imran Khan in jail,” he added.
He castigated the rulers for police crackdown on the PTI and preventing his rally, saying that their illegal actions have hurt democracy in the country. The PTI was launching its elections campaign after the announcement of the elections, but the government assaulted the PTI rally. He pointed out that the same officers were involved in the police crackdown who were behind the atrocities committed on the PTI Workers on May 25. Hence, he questioned the neutrality of the caretaker governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the Punjab government was bent on crushing the PTI for which it has deputed selected officers to do the job. He was of the view that this would distort the image of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), adding that they imposed an interim set-up that was anti-PTI.
Addressing the ECP, Khan said he was hurt by the cases taken up by them, and he will be cleared by the superior courts since he has all the documents to prove his innocence, but he was willing to forgive them for damaging him and his party. “The current critical situation of the country demands that the ECP holds free and fair elections if we want to steer the country out of prevailing crises. If we fail to do our job, anarchy would spread in the country. So, do not allow the discredited caretaker set-ups to appoint the ROs whose sole aim was to rig the elections; ask the judiciary to depute their officials as ROs,” he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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