Following Khan’s arrest, his party called for demonstrations, which turned violent at many places.
Islamabad:
Accusing his ‘political opponents’ of being “out to kill him”, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said that he would stay in Pakistan and contest all court cases despite his well-wishers abroad urging him to leave the country, Dawn reported.
In a video address from his Lahore’s Zaman Park residence on Wednesday, Khan said his well-wishers called him and said that Pakistan’s establishment and all political parties were against him and they had already “imprisoned” the whole PTI.
“I have not committed any theft or crime. Why should I leave Pakistan?” he asked. “I am standing here alone because I have faith in Allah,” Dawn quoted the former PM as saying.
Last month, the government restricted Khan, his wife and hundreds of political aides from travelling abroad after the PTI chief’s arrest on May 9 sparked violent protests across the country.
The PTI Chairman alleged that six more FIRs had been registered against him, taking the tally to 180 cases, and he was running from one court to another to get bail in “fake cases”.
The former PM further stressed that his party lawyers, leaders and workers should get “cases registered against the police officers who he said were using high-handed tactics against citizens, including family members of PTI leaders and workers,” Dawn reported.
“The nation must not continue bearing oppression but stand against it peacefully,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, Imran Khan lashed out at the Shehbaz Sharif government, and alleged that the administration has “made a plan” to put him in jail and the whole episode that transpired over his arrest was “pre-planned”.
Addressing the nation, former PM Imran Khan said, “I want the nation to know how a plan has been made to arrest me on the basis of false and baseless cases. A lawyer is killed in Quetta and without any investigation and proof. Shahbaz Sharif’s advisor comes on TV on the same day and says that the murder was done by Imran Khan and later the video of the same lawyer’s widow shows who did it”.
On May 9, this year, former PM and PTI Chairman Imran Khan was arrested from inside the High Court in Islamabad by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the charges of corruption in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust, which he owns alongside his wife, Bushra Bibi.
Following Khan’s arrest, his party called for demonstrations, which turned violent at many places. The administration resorted to crackdown and many arrests were made across the country. The people accused in the May 9 violence are being tried at military courts.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)