LONDON: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan has denied ending the Islamabad sit-in on the advice of military chief General Raheel Sharif, who is reported to have asked Imran Khan to end the Dharna and Nawaz Sharif to hold talks with Mr Khan over their differences.
“I want to make it clear that until today, I have not been dictated to by anyone; I don’t take dictation from anyone. To say that I ended the Dharna on someone’s orders is completely wrong. It’s like misleading people. There’s only one reason behind ending the Dharna, and it’s to do with the Peshawar terror attack on the Army Public School,” he said while speaking to the Pakistani media at Heathrow Airport.
Imran Khan was received at Heathrow airport by senior PTI Labour Wing (UK) leaders Sahibzada Jahangir, Amjad Khan and Insaf Student Federation (ISF) leaders Talal Virk, Toheed Awais Buttar, Rana Shahraiz and others.
Imran Khan said: “Neither General Raheel Sharif nor anyone else asked me to end the Dharna, and he (Gen Sharif) shouldn’t call me anyway because I don’t take decisions on the basis of telephone calls from anyone. I believe in taking decisions in the national interest.
Imran Khan said that ending the Dharna had become a national demand in the wake of the Peshawar carnage “which saw our kids massacred by terrorists. The whole nation wanted all of us to be on the same page and show a united front against terrorism. It was in this context that we decided to end the Dharna. After the Peshawar attack it was not right to do the politics of opposition.
When asked about the continuing wrangling over the formation of the judicial commission to probe alleged rigging in the 2013 elections, Imran Khan said that the PML-N should not be worried at all about the judicial commission and “should have nothing to worry about unless it has something to hide. We want a strong judicial commission that
could genuinely probe the massive fraud during the 2013 elections.
“All parties say that the 2013 elections were rigged massively. It was so bad that around 26,000 fake votes were found in my constituency where I was defeated by 8,000 votes, and the issue of forms 14 and 15 is till there. We don’t want a toothless judicial commission as it will not serve any purpose.”
Imran Khan said that PTI had shown extreme flexibility in talks with the government, but the government was not reciprocating.
“The PML-N should show the same kind of flexibility that we have shown. There is no point in making a pointless and toothless judicial commission which doesn’t serve any meaningful purpose and goes on to help further rigging.”
Imran Khan said that PTI will decide on returning to the assemblies once the judicial commission has made its findings clear.