Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Wednesday refused to apologize for the May 9 riots, claiming his party had not resorted to violence at any point in its history.
“Why should I tender apology? It should be sought from me,” he told journalists during an informal interaction at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail while responding to a question about the military spokesman linking any dialogue to a public apology and promises to shun politics of anarchy.
During a press conference a day earlier, ISPR Director-General Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had also emphasized the need for all May 9 rioters and their facilitators to be punished as per Constitution and law. The May 9 riots refers to the violent unrest that broke out after the arrest of Khan in a corruption case from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC) last year. During demonstrations nationwide, PTI supporters allegedly attacked public and private properties, including setting fire to and ransacking military installations.
Reiterating his party’s commitment to “peaceful” demonstrations, Khan claimed he had only learnt of the May 9 riots when he was presented before the Supreme Court. “I condemned the May 9 incidents in front of [former] chief justice Umar Ata Bandial,” he said, adding that if the security establishment did not wish to talk to him, then it should not do so. “I am asking for holding dialogues for the sake of Pakistan,” he said, reiterating he was interested in any “deal.”
To a question on whether his party supported the ISPR spokesman’s call for a judiciary inquiry into the May 9 riots—if it commenced from the 2014 dharna staged by the PTI in Islamabad—the PTI founder said he was ready for such a probe. “I will be happy to appear before an inquiry committee. All allegations against me related to the 2014 sit-in are false,” he claimed, saying the 2014 sit-in was a protest against alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.
“The Army is ours and we have no problem with the Army,” he maintained. “For God’s sake, do not drag the military into politics,” said the founding chairman of the party whose leaders have repeatedly called for dialogue with the military while shunning any attempts at dialogue with their political opposition. He also alleged that some PMLN leaders have conveyed to the PTI last year that general elections would not take place until then-Justice Qazi Faez Isa became the chief justice.