Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Thursday backtracked from his call for a rally in Rawalpindi on Sept. 28 (Saturday), saying the party would instead stage a “strong protest.”
“We know they will not grant us permission for the rally and if they do it will be outside the city,” he told journalists during an informal interaction at Adiala Jail. “That’s why we are withdrawing our request from the court [for permission] and on [Sept. 28], we will not hold a rally in Rawalpindi but a strong protest,” he said. Additionally, he said, the PTI’s lawyers would stage a protest for the independence of the judiciary outside the Supreme Court on Friday (today).
Reiterating that he had now closed all doors to negotiation with the security establishment, Khan maintained there was no benefit in doing so. This directive, he stressed, applied to all PTI leaders, including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur. To a question on a recent media appearance of PTI spokesperson Raoof Hassan in which he had said it was party policy to negotiate with the establishment, Khan said he was mistaken. “I have told everyone there is no benefit in negotiating with them and everyone should stop,” he said. A few hours later, Hassan was officially removed as the party’s central information secretary.
To questions on his “stigmatizing” senior puisne Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Khan maintained he had no personal acquaintance with the Supreme Court judge. “I mentioned his name solely based on seniority. The Constitution also states that the seniormost judge is appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” he said, saying the government should notify his appointment.
In yet another U-turn, Khan also reverted to his earlier call deriding the military’s self-proclaimed “neutrality,” lamenting that “they” used any backtracking of the PTI to further crush the party. “This is not the policy of the institutions; it’s the policy of the third umpire,” he said, referring to his euphemism for Army chief Gen. Asim Munir.
“As long as institutions and ethics are not destroyed, countries do not fall apart,” he said, reiterating that Pakistan should have learnt lessons from the Hamoodur Rahman Commission. “Today, the ‘Gang of 3’ is destroying the future of the country for the sake of their own extension,” he alleged, accusing Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of “colluding” with “them” to sideline the PTI. “[CJP] Qazi Faez Isa has been protecting the injustices inflicted upon us; his duty was to safeguard fundamental rights. Our people have been in prisons for 16 months without trial,” he claimed
Meanwhile, an accountability court announced that Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, would be indicted in the new Toshakhana reference on Oct. 2.