'Military, ISI Is Above Law, They Can...': Imran Khan Blames Pakistan's Army For His Arrest
“Without any doubt, the military is behind my arrest,” Imran Khan told the Guardian, adding, “Pakistan is now being run by the army chief. The crackdown on us is by the army chief.”
New Delhi: Days after Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court, he accused the army chief of ordering his arrest and a crackdown on his party. He claimed that the head of the army holds a “personal grudge” against him and that the arrest had nothing to do with "national interest," the PTI chief told the Guardian in an interview.
“It is personal. It’s got nothing to do with national interest,” Khan told the Guardian after he was dramatically arrested in connection with a land corruption case by almost 100 paramilitary Rangers from the Islamabad High Court while he was undergoing a biometric process before a court hearing.
“Without any doubt, the military is behind my arrest,” he said, adding, “Pakistan is now being run by the army chief. The crackdown on us is by the army chief.”
Khan was released from police custody on Friday evening after IHC granted him protective bail for two weeks in a corruption case and barred the authorities from arresting the former Pakistan prime minister in any case registered anywhere in the country until Monday.
Alleging that his arrest and that of seven senior members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was symptomatic of the unrivalled power wielded by the military, Khan told the Guardian, “The military is above law; the ISI [military intelligence agency] is above law and if you have anyone above the law, then you descend into the law of the jungle. They can pick up people, detain people, disappear people. They try and influence judges; they clamp down on the media. There’s no accountability for the institution. It’s not democratic.”
Speaking to the Guardian, Khan alleged that Army Chief General Asim Munir and other senior military figures had a "vested interest to ensure that I don’t come back to power”.
“They’re petrified. They know that we will sweep the elections, so they’ve been looking for an excuse to put me in jail,” said Khan.
While speaking about his stance against the military and whether it is a means to weaken the army’s leadership and gain greater control over the institution, Khan said, "We don’t want any backing. We want them to be neutral; we just want free and fair elections.”
Alleging that all the cases against him were politically motivated by the coalition government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, Khan said that though he feared imminent arrest again, he believed there was “nothing they can do to disqualify me from politics or dissolve my party, which has mass public support”.
Khan is facing 121 cases across the country, including committing treason and blasphemy and inciting violence and terrorism.
Last year in April, the PTI chief was ousted from power after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.
Khan, who came to power in 2018, is the only Pakistani Prime Minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
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