Says will continue long march after recovery
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Friday said that once he regains his health, he would continue his long march towards Islamabad.
After being shot and injured in an assassination attempt while standing atop a container during his long march on Thursday, Imran Khan said that he had learned about the looming danger beforehand. He was addressing his supporters from Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore where is undergoing treatment.
“I had already learned that there was a plan in place to kill me somewhere between Wazirabad and Gujrat,” Khan said as he spoke during a televised address. The PTI chairman claimed that as against initial media reports, he sustained four bullets in his shin.
Providing details of how “they” [government leaders and others] planned to assassinate him, Khan said, “they used similar methods they tried using against [former Punjab governor] Salman Taseer”.
Imran asked his party workers and supporters to continue protest ing against the assassination attempt on him until three “accused” including the prime minister and interior minister resigned from their post.
“They tried to accuse me of blasphemy to turn the public against me,” he said, adding that his party was not created under the patronage of any military establishment and he came to power after 22 years of struggle.
At the beginning of his address, Khan started berating the incumbent government and lamented how his government was ousted through a motion of no-confidence.
Khan accused the Election Commission of Pakistan and said that the body was involved with the incumbent government to sideline the PTI.
“In the July 17 by-election, the ECP resorted to all sorts of rigging tactics,” he alleged.
“They employed all manoeuvres to discredit me, resorted to mudslinging, and filed cases against me, government machinery was used and the election body stopped the implementation of electronic voting machines.
“[Despite all their efforts, the PTI still won the elections],” he said. The former premier added that the ECP became a tool of the coalition government to disqualify him in the Toshakhana reference. He added that accusations levelled against him in the Toshakhana case are baseless as all the records are available in the Toshakhana.
“Despite knowing nothing could be stolen from the Toshakhana, the ECP disqualified me in that case because they wanted to create a level-playing field for Nawaz Sharif.
Khan added that he cannot be compared to the [Sharif family] which has billions of assets abroad and live in the most expensive apartments in London.
He stated that the party would approach the court against the ECP’s decision to disqualify him, claiming that Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja was a “servant of the Sharif family”.
He reiterated his previous statement and said that four people were planning to assassinate him, so he had filmed a video to reveal the names of those people.
“The tape, which includes the names of four people, will be released if something happens to me,” the former prime minister had said in October while addressing a jalsa in Mianwali.
“I have been in the government for three and a half years, I know everyone in the institutions and agencies, they say.
Before beginning his address, Khan asked PTI stalwart, Dr Faisal Sultan, to brief the masses about his health condition while revealing that he was hit by four bullets.
Dr Sultan displayed Khan’s X-ray reports on a screen and highlighted the details of the injuries that the party chief sustained including a fracture among other injuries.
