“We have the street power; we can shut down the whole of Pakistan, but the economic conditions of our country are such that we should worry about the country, so we also protest peacefully.”
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday lashed out at the ruling coalition for conspiring to pit his party against the powerful military, though he also signaled a deepening rift between PTI and army leadership after the arrest of his close aide on sedition charges.
“They have prepared a plan to crush the PTI … a conspiracy has been devised to show the country’s biggest political party and the army as opponents,” Khan said while addressing his supporters via video link. “This plot is extremely dangerous and can damage the country.”
The PTI chairman said his party possessed the street power to shut down the entire country.
“We have the street power; we can shut down the whole of Pakistan, but the economic conditions of our country are such that we should worry about the country, so we also protest peacefully,” Khan said.
Khan undoubtedly had significant genuine public support in 2018 when he was elected prime minister and seemed to have almost everything in his favour. He also had the covert backing of the military establishment. He was ousted as prime minister after a vote of no confidence in parliament in April following public discontent with his mismanagement of the economy and lost support of military establishment.
The government alleged that Khan and his party are trolling against the military’s top brass on social media to divert public attention away from the prohibited-foreign funding investigations against them.
Police on Tuesday arrested Shahbaz Gill, chief of staff at Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party for allegedly attempting to incite soldiers to revolt against the top military leadership.
In a broadcast on a private television channel, Gill urged troops and officers, all the way up to brigadiers, to refuse to obey “illegal orders” from the military leadership.
A court in Islamabad on Wednesday ruled to allow police to hold up Gill in detention for two more days as they investigate the motive for his on-air remarks.
Khan denounced Gill’s arrest as shameful and called it ‘an abduction, not an arrest’, but in a televised speech, he appeared to distance himself from the affair.
“What Shahbaz Gill said, if it was against the law, it’s very easy … the law and constitution should tell the procedure to be initiated against Shahbaz Gill,” he said. “But breaking his car’s mirrors and attacking his driver is unjustified.”
Meanwhile, police on Wednesday also arrested a news director at ARY channel in Karachi on charges of broadcasting anti-army comments by Gill. Security officials said there would also be raids on several other ARY employees.
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