Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday alleged that members of his party are being pressured to leave it after being told that he has been marked with a “red line” and no longer has a viable future.
Addressing members of the Punjab Assembly parliamentary party via video-link, he said people who believed he could be wiped out so long as the public supported him lacked any political acumen or sense of history. Accusing the establishment—without directly naming it—of political interference, he claimed PIT lawmakers were being forced to switch their loyalties ahead of Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi’s trust vote.
Claiming that the alleged political engineering aimed at damaging the PTI would be swept away by his supporters, he reiterated that the establishment’s plans to isolate the PTI had similarly collapsed when the party won the by-elections in July and October. “The PTI is sacrificing its two assemblies in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and expects that elections will be held in both provinces—and eventually the entire country—within the stipulated time frame,” he said, adding that if his party returned to power with a strong majority, it would take “strong decisions” for the sake of the country.
During his speech, Khan reiterated allegations of the establishment attempting to intimidate PTI supporters and workers through torture and pressure, citing the examples of Senator Azam Swati, his former aide Shahbaz Gill, and others. Slamming the federal government for placing the members of Elahi’s family on the exit control list, he claimed he would never accept the incumbent government, as that would be akin to accepting a “cabal of crooks.”
Maintaining that the ruling coalition could only alleviate economic pressures by going to the IMF and securing relief in exchange for further inflation, he reiterated claims that they had destroyed the economy. He also questioned the logic behind taking a large delegation to Geneva, claiming the entire event could have been conducted via video-link.