Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan of launching a “vile, sinister and malicious” campaign against Army chief Gen. Asim Munir through “proxies,” stressing this was all part of a bid to place personal interest above all else.
In a posting on Twitter, Sharif claimed Khan had been badly exposed by his latest “desperate” attempt to coerce his way back into power. “Imran Khan continues to engage in a vile, sinister and malicious campaign against COAS General Syed Asim Munir. His trick of using proxies to threaten the Army chief of an assassination attempt has been badly exposed,” he wrote.
“After his methodically planned attack on the state symbols failed, he is clearly desperate and wants to coerce his way back into power, little knowing that the time of his politics of intimidation, violence and hatred is over,” he said. “Through such highly condemnable antics, he is only exposing himself, the core of which is defined by putting his personal interest (power grab) over everything else,” he wrote.
“The people of Pakistan and the political parties stand behind their Army chief and the armed forces like a rock and will thwart any attempt and conspiracy at undermining their prestige, honor and integrity,” he added.
Separately, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif had ordered authorities to take legal action against anyone involved in such malicious campaigns both inside and outside the country. Alleging that similar mindsets were involved in the May 9 riots conspiracy, he vowed that any attempt to harm Pakistan and its institutions would be crushed.
Reiterating that the “new” media campaign was part of the same campaign that had targeted martyrs, he alleged that the aim was to damage Pakistan as it was once again achieving political and economic stability. He stressed that such campaigns did not fall under the purview of freedom of expression and it was a legal responsibility to eradicate such views with full strength.
Instead of responding to the prime minister’s accusations, Khan sought to deflect through a posting on Twitter, questioning who had gained the most from the May 9 riots. “Any independent investigation will find that you and your band of crooks and money-launderers who were petrified of losing elections to PTI, were behind the mayhem caused on [May 9] and the crackdown against PTI that followed,” he alleged, though without any evidence/
The prime minister’s statement followed a journalist Shaheen Sehbai—who is based in the U.S. and is a well-known supporter of the PTI—saying at an event that the collapse of the Ayub Khan regime had been triggered by a “young man” opening fire on him at a gathering in 1968. This has been seen by many analysts as an alleged threat to the Army chief, though Sehbai did not outright name Gen. Munir.