F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Reacting to the ISPR statement, former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has said that respect should not be accorded to only one institution, it should also be accorded to an individual.
In a video message, he released on PTI Twitter handle before leaving to Islamabad on Tuesday, Imran said that he is the leader of the biggest political party of Pakistan and he too holds esteem.
The military on Monday warned the PTI chairman of legal action over “mala fide statements and propaganda” and advised him to “make a recourse to legal avenues” soon after Imran Khan once again accused a senior intelligence official of his involvement in the plot to assassinate the former prime minister.
In its statement, the ISPR said: “Chairman PTI has levelled highly irresponsible and baseless allegations against a serving senior military officer without any evidence. These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.
“We ask the political leader concerned to make a recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and mala fide statements and propaganda.”
In his video message today, Imran Khan repeated his allegation that a senior military official tried to assassinate him twice. He claimed that whenever an investigation will be held, he would prove that the same military official (whom he dubbed Dirty Harry) along with his team was involved in the plot to eliminate him.
He lamented that he even could not lodge an FIR against this person despite being in power in Punjab.
He demanded an investigation saying if he were innocent, he would come clean.
He further alleged that the JIT formed by then PTI Punjab government which was probing the assassination attempt on him could not convince the two police officers – DPO Gujrat and CCPO CTD who recorded Naveed shooter’s statement — to participate in our investigation, seemingly under the pressure of this military official.
He said that the JIT had found out that there were four shooters instead of one “fanatic killer” as claimed by the current government who were involved in the attack on him. He alleged that his JIT was sabotaged as four CTD officials were pressured to retract their statements.
He repeated his allegation that the ISI officials took over the Judicial Complex a night before his arrival there to assassinate him on the order of this military official. He said he would prove that the ISI officials infiltrated there, donning the CTD uniform and lawyers’ robes.
The PTI chairman said that journalist Arshad Sharif’s mother named this military official and his team behind the killing of her son.
He decried that no one dares start an investigation against them as these people are sacrosanct and are revered as ‘holy cows’.
He urged the ISPR to take action against its ‘black sheep’ to improve its credibility and image.
He said that institutions must take action against corrupt people in their midst. He said naming a ‘corrupt’ does not mean that he is maligning Army. “This my Army, my Pakistan. This is not only your Pakistan,” he reiterated.
He slammed gagging of the critics, warning that this practice is harming the reputation of the institution.
He also said that he is going to Islamabad to attend the court hearing. He said the administration should not waste public money on deploying a huge number of police, FC, Ranger and security officials during his arrival at the court.
“If someone has got arrest warrants against me, I will be ready to surrender. I will go to jail myself. Don’t waste money on deploying security officials. Don’t stage any drama. Give me warrants, if you have any. There is no case against me. But I’m mentally prepared to go to jail and even to lay down my life,” Imran concluded his message while posing a question to the current rulers if they are ready to face the wrath of public when they would be exploded like people of Sri Lanka.
In a series of tweets posted on yesterday, Imran Khan asked four questions to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
