In a late March interview with TIME, Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan said that the threat of his assassination is “still real” as the people who orchestrated the November attack on his life are still in power.
Khan spoke on how the government was scared that he would hold them accountable if he was brought back to power in elections; November’s assassination attempt, because of which he is still having trouble walking as the bullet damaged a nerve; and the Pakistani government’s attempt to arrest him in March, wherein the police had surrounded him on all three sides as though he was “some big terrorist” held up.
PTI’s Persecution, Public Support for Khan
Watch: An interview with Imran Khan https://t.co/057q2MPkvf pic.twitter.com/jRGivuyKjG
— TIME (@TIME) April 4, 2023
Khan said the recent events that occurred in the past 11 months since he was ousted as PM were unprecedented. He said no other political party was treated the way the incumbent government treated his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party.
Speaking about the Pakistani authorities’ fear of Khan’s popularity, he said, “Never has one man scared the establishment, the political parties as much as it is now.” He said that Pakistani televisions were all reporting about “one man.”
Meanwhile, the former PM said that he enjoyed the support of most people in Pakistan, who were looking for ways to bring him back and oppose the “mafia” and “military” vendetta to keep Khan out of power. He added that the crowds gathered outside his residence in large numbers to protest his arrest as they had “no faith in the government.”
Call for Elections
Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan called the Pakistani government a “facade” that acted on behalf of the military.
First Federally & now in Punjab, #Ehsaas Rashan Riayat targeted subsidy has been shutdown. Millions deprived of subsidised food rations while inflation is at an all time high. Instead, an unsustainable 1 month free flour policy is underway killing, injuring & humiliating people. pic.twitter.com/eSkuS2DInW
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 3, 2023
He said the PM Shehbaz Sharif-led government is “petrified” of elections, given that their popularity is “next to zero.” They are only able to retain power as the military establishment backs them, Khan added.
Khan said that the only way ahead for Pakistan is to conduct “free and fair elections”, which the incumbent government has been refusing to do before October. Given that international institutions are unwilling to provide the government with any loans amid the political instability, he said the elections would be the first step towards economic stabilisation.
He added that if the people in power gave him a roadmap on how they were planning on securing Pakistan’s economy, he would step away.