A day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership expressed conditional agreement to hold talks with the federal government, former Prime Minister Imran Khan has again warned the government, criticizing the PTI leadership for behaving as if ‘everything is fine’, that he will call for civil disobedience if his demands continue to be ignored.
Speaking to reporters at Adiala Jail after his wife and himself were indicted in the Toshakhana case on Thursday, former Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed disappointment over the lack of public acknowledgement and accountability for the violence during the D-Chowk protest in the last week of November.
PTI had claimed that the government had opened direct fire on its workers, resulting in the death of 12 people, a claim denied by the federal government.
The former prime minister criticized the PTI leadership, saying that they did not raise the issue with full force in Parliament, while he also expressed displeasure over the statements of party leaders that gave the impression of ‘all is well’.
A day earlier, PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said in the National Assembly that ‘even if shots were fired, there should at least be the courage to respond, express remorse, apologize, conduct an investigation and compensate the people.’
Imran Khan expressed surprise as to why the party leadership was giving the impression of being a friendly opposition. He said that I am not expressing distrust in the leadership but I am concerned about the handling of the D-Chowk incident. He directed the party leadership to upload the names of those who went missing during the D-Chowk protest.
Imran Khan, speaking to reporters, once again demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the crackdown in D-Chowk and the release of detained PTI workers. He said that if these demands were not met by December 15, the former ruling party would intensify the protest campaign, which includes intensifying the call for civil disobedience and observing a day of mourning.
Regarding the court martial of former ISI chief Faiz Hameed, Imran Khan said that General Faiz was under the then Army Chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and was not working on his own.
Imran Khan severely criticized singer Salman Ahmed for making baseless allegations against former First Lady Bushra Bibi and termed Salman Ahmed’s tweets as foolish.
