ISLAMABAD: Responding to a press release of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan has said that not only a single institution is sacrosanct but every citizen is respectable.
Earlier, The ISPR had strongly condemned Khan’s statement for what the army’s media wing said “levelling baseless allegations against a senior serving military officer without providing any evidence is extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.”
Imran Khan released a video message before leaving Lahore to appear before the Islamabad High Court, stating: “The ISPR has given a statement that I have insulted the army. I only named an intelligence officer who attempted to kill me twice.”
He said: “Not only a single institution but all citizens of the nation should be respected. I am the head of the country’s largest political party; people have known me for 50 years. I don’t need to lie, this man has attempted to kill me twice. Whenever there is an investigation, I will prove that this man attempted to kill me.”
Imran Khan said that who else was involved with this person, everyone knows who they were. “My question is, as a former prime minister, I could not file an FIR for the attempted murder on me. If the FIR had been registered and investigated, and if this person was innocent, it would have come to light. “He is such a powerful person that despite our government in Punjab, we could not name him in the FIR,” he said.
“Two police officers of Punjab, the DPO Gujarat and the CCPO CTD, who had recorded the shooter’s statement, denied us to be part of the investigation. “Who was behind it?”
“When the JIT investigation proved that three shooters fired at me, they unleashed propaganda that only one religious extremist was behind it. After this was proved, the JIT was sabotaged. The CTD officials were expelled from the JIT. Who was behind him?”
Imran Khan said, “I will prove that the ISI took over the judicial complex the night before my appearance in court. I will prove that there were ISI men in civvies inside the judicial complex. I will also prove that a brigadier was sitting there who was monitoring the whole matter. What was the ISI’s job there? I will prove that an attempt was made to kill me in the judicial complex and this powerful man was behind it.”
He said that the mother of the late journalist Arshad Sharif also named this coterie. “No one dared to investigate because these were sacred cows.”
Addressing the DG ISPR, he said, “ISPR Sahib! When an institution takes action against its black sheep, it enhances its reputation. The institution that catches corrupt people becomes strong. If a doctor in Shaukat Khanum Hospital does wrong, we take action, it improves the credibility of our institution.
“It has become a norm that when we name a person, you jump into the bandwagon and say we spoil the army’s reputation. This is my army and Pakistan’s army. I may be more concerned about the military than you.”
“I am going to Islamabad today, there is no need to waste the nation’s money by calling police, Rangers and other forces there. Come to me with a warrant, my counsel will be there to entertain it and I myself will go to jail,” the former premier said.
