Ready to talk to all about polls: Imran Khan

LAHORE: PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan Thursday said he was ready to talk to everyone on the issue of polls and made it clear that no negotiations were underway from his side at the moment.

Talking to the media here, he demanded constitution of a commission to probe the May 9 incident. He asked as to who was justifying the attack on the Jinnah House and not condemning it.

Imran said his sisters as well as the party member Dr Yasmin Rashid were barred from entering the Jinnah House and facts concerning those incidents should come to the surface.

To a question, he said those quitting the party were under immense pressure adding that efforts were on to wipe out his party from the political scene.

Meanwhile, in a tweet, Imran grilled the Punjab caretaker government for misleading the nation before launching an operation at the Zaman Park.

Imran said, “When the illegal caretaker Punjab government announced that 40 terrorists were hiding in my house, should they not have named them?

“The reason they did not was because what they were planning was to bring 30-40 people with them and then accuse me of harbouring terrorists just like the last time when they broke into my house through an armoured car and then planted Kalashnikovs and petrol bombs,” Imran said in the tweet.

In another tweet, Imran slammed the operation against the PTI workers. In yet another tweet, Imran said, “My sympathies go to all those who under pressure have been made to leave the party. And I commend and salute all the senior members who are resisting the extreme pressure to quit the party. The nation will always remember them for standing up for Haqeeqi Azaadi.”

Imran said he would keep fighting for “real freedom” even if he were left alone, reports the local media. “Don’t you dare think that I’ll step back due to pressure? If two assassination attempts failed to push me back, know that I will keep standing.”

“Who liked fighting his army?” he asked. “Fighting the army means losing the country,” he added. “Show me a person who is not condemning attack on the corps commander house”, Imran said.

The PTI chief said he had the evidence on how people were pushed into the Lahore’s Corps Commander House. “Bring out the CCTV footage to reveal who burned the house,” he added. The former premier claimed that the PTI was sure that 25 unarmed people were shot at directly during protests, adding that it had no idea about the rest.

At one point, he alluded the PDM had concocted a plan to bring the PTI at loggerheads with the army and then impose a ban on it. “It was because they lost 30 by-elections out of 37 [country-wide] contests,” he added.

Khan said the government was resorting to tactical knockout. “They have been trying to eliminate the party for a year and it did nothing but increased the PTI’s vote bank,” he added. It was all part of the [bigger] London plan to crush the party and eliminate him, he claimed.

Meanwhile, talking to an international media service, Imran said an “unprecedented crackdown” was occurring in Pakistan.

He expressed belief that he would soon be rearrested. He stated, “7,500 of my workers have been arrested. All my senior leadership has been arrested. So what will happen? I don’t know. But I expect to be rearrested,” he said. Imran said this crackdown was an attempt “to crush the party so that we don’t contest the election; this is why all of this is happening.”

The PTI chief explained that he had invited journalists to his home, which defused the situation with the police.

The ex-PM said, “I said, come over to my house and see where the terrorists are. So that defused the situation because clearly there were no terrorists, so that’s when the police could not take action.”

While there are still police officers stationed around his home, their numbers have significantly reduced since their initial deployment on Wednesday, he added.