LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry reiterated his party’s stance that the military establishment played an “active role” in “unconstitutional” removal of Imran Khan as prime minister through a no-confidence vote.

The senior vice president of the PTI expressed his views while speaking on the BBC programme Hard Talk, during which he said: “Some of the military generals were involved” in the ouster of Imran Khan. He added that it was “military versus the PTI” during the no-trust vote episode.

He lamented that stable governments were not sent packing the way the PTI was toppled. Imran Khan was removed from the Prime Minister’s Office through a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly in April last year by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

He emphasised the need to give a free hand to politicians to do politics. He said Imran Khan had blamed former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa for orchestrating plan for his removal.

Responding to a question, he said Pakistan’s growth rate was six percent during the PTI rule despite Covid pandemic but the country was unnecessarily pushed into economic crisis by triggering political crisis stemmed from the removal of Khan.

When host Stephen Sackur highlighted that Pakistan dropped by 20 points on the corruption perception index when the PTI left the power, the former information minister expressed disagreement, saying not the political but departments related to the rule of law contributed to that ranking. He maintained that the PTI’s government was “cleanest” in 75 years history of the country as no member of Imran Khan’s cabinet had been accused of corruption.

When he was asked about the PTI chief’s claims that plan to removed him as PM was hatched in the US, he said then Pakistan’s ambassador in the US sent a cipher after his meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu, wherein the US official had said that ties between the two countries would be hinged on the success or failure of the no-trust vote. He said the cipher was also sent to President Arif Alvi, asking him to form an investigation commission.

Fawad Chauhdry said the PTI never sought a war with the US. He said his party wanted good relations with the US but clarified that it would not accept dictation from any country. While talking about political situation in the country, he said the PTI wanted immediate fresh elections in the country but the government was not in the mood, adding that country’s stability linked to the elections.