“Govt to bring
in ‘protective’
Army Chief”
Imran expresses the fear that those who want him dead may try again
LAHORE, NOV 17 (DNA) — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that the government is going to introduce changes in the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 to bring in a ‘protective’ army chief for themselves.
Former premier Imran Khan addressed the participants of the PTI long march via video link from his residence at Zaman Park in Lahore on Thursday. The PTI chairman said the sitting ruling mafia has no aim to promote a professional army chief as they have interests against the country.
Imran Khan said the rulers have no concern for the country but ended their corruption cases and then left Pakistan. He said free and fair elections are the only way forward as the nation has given the message of no trust in the rulers after participating in his long march.
PTI Chairman Imran said his party has won 70 percent of seats in the by-poll despite the fact that the establishment was standing with the rulers. Addressing the PTI workers he told them that he was going to lodge cases against the Pakistani corrupt rulers in London and Dubai for carrying out “propaganda” against him and his party on the Watch issue.
The PTI chairman added that the sitting rulers were trying to accuse him of wrongdoings the same which they had committed in the past. He criticized the government for its anti-masses economic policies and the current inflation situation in the country and said the rulers should pay attention on inflation instead of hiding its corruption and getting NRO on corruption charges.
Meanwhile, Former prime minister expressed the fear that those who want him dead may try again as he said that the ‘true’ attacker was still at large.
He said this on Thursday in an interview to French news outlet France24. In the interview, he said that his attackers may still feel that the job is not done, which is why he is now taking precautionary measures. “They think that the only way to get me out of the way is actually [to] eliminate me. So I think that there is a threat, still,” he said.
Imran reiterated his accusation that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior military official as being responsible for the November 3 Wazirabad attack because they feel threatened by him.
The former prime minister added that the suspect apprehended soon after the attack in Wazirabad was just a ‘decoy’ the divert attention away from the real attacker who remains at large. He contested the official view that there was just a single attacker by maintaining that he was shot at from two separate directions pointing to the presence of two attackers.
Imran reiterated that he only trusts an investigation helmed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court to hold transparent investigations into the attack. He argued that any other investigation, especially one involving the country’s powerful intelligence agencies could be influenced or tainted by the federal government.
Despite the lingering threat, following which a bulletproof cubicle was erected atop his principle container, Imran vowed to rejoin his party’s march in person when it reaches Rawalpindi later this month.
On his recent climbdown from accusations that the US were involved in an international conspiracy with the government coalition to engineer a surprising vote of no-confidence loss that effectively ended his government, Imran said he still accuses Washington of having played a key role.
Despite that, Imran maintained that he did not wish to go against the interests of the people of Pakistan by antagonizing a global superpower. Stating that he has burnt his bridges and there was no going back, Imran on Thursday told his supporters who are holding rallies in various cities of Pakistan that he would announce on Saturday when he would go to Rawalpindi.
