LAHORE (Web Desk) – PTI head Imran Khan said on Saturday that he is willing to be removed from politics if he is informed what advantage it will bring to the nation.
He inquired, through video connection, what value there was in postponing elections. “Hold free and fair elections, and then the nation will start fighting back against the quagmire it has been in,” he continued.
He slammed interim administrations in Punjab and KP, saying they were illegitimate and that they failed to declare elections in both provinces within 90 days after dissolution of parliament. “Every order issued by them is illegal,” he went on to say.
He went on to remark that the federal government planned to have NA elections in September, which was their prerogative. “It is our right to demand elections in two provinces,” he said.
What might talks have gotten us? he wondered. “They want to hold elections after they are sure that the PTI has been pressed,” he continued.
“We’ve passed the point of no return,” he lamented. He said that they were ruining the whole nation in order to crush a political party.
Mr Khan said that he informed Pakistan’s Chief Justice, Umar Ata Bandial, that he firmly denounced all forms of violence.
He went on to claim that it was also misinformation that he did not denounce the May 9 violence, and that he told CJP Bandial that he never permitted his followers to do anything other than demonstrate peacefully. “It was a planned conspiracy to ban the PTI,” he said.
The PTI leader said that PTI followers, members, and office holders had been imprisoned. “Whoever is outside has gone underground because authorities are conducting raids on their homes,” he said.
Mr Khan said that it was difficult to get information from the government about what was going on, adding that 25 unarmed PTI members had been slain. “It is not legal to assault protesters,” he stressed.
He said that geofencing just revealed where a person was, and he questioned how it could detect whether they were participating in the May 9 assaults. “If they were, the PTI condemns it the most,” he said.
He wondered who tore the garments of PTI Peshawar’s founding members during demonstrations. “Because the plane in Mianwali is made of aluminium, it cannot be burned,” he continued. “They” did something and burned it, he claimed.
“We don’t want anything else but an investigation into it,” he said.
The PTI was demonstrating someplace else in Peshawar, but he wondered how they got to Radio Pakistan’s Peshawar headquarters.
Those asking for nonviolent demonstrations, he alleged, were also detained. “PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Dr Yasmin Rashid were calling for peaceful protests, while I was housed in the IHC,” he continued.
“People carrying placards were arrested as well,” he complained. He inquired as to the legislation they had broken.
He said that the PTI was simply pinning hopes on the court, and that the state was doing all possible to persuade judges not to award us relief.
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