May 9 and Imran’s admission, justification, defence and warning

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, who on Monday admitted to having given a call for protest outside the Army’s General Headquarters, has not only been defending the May 9 protest of his supporters but had also warned of severe reaction if arrested again.

While speaking to reporters during a hearing of a case inside the Adiala jail on Monday, Khan admitted, “I had given a call for holding a peaceful protest outside the GHQ before my arrest… They made our peaceful protest a treason.”

Now different PTI leaders are trying to deny what Khan said on Monday but Khan’s past statements also show him justifying his party’s May 9 protest outside the GHQ and in other military areas. Three days after the May 9 violence of PTI workers, Imran Khan, during his talk with reporters, was reported to have warned that severe reaction would come again and the same law and or order situation would be created if he was arrested again.

According to a news report, published on 13th May, Imran had added that political workers become directionless in the absence of leadership and they might resort to violent protests if their leader was arrested in violation of law. “If I’m not out there, then who will stop people [from waging protest],” he was quoted to have said.

On May 23, 2023, Dawn reported Imran Khan to have stated that peaceful protest was a fundamental right and nobody could stop people from organizing a non-violent demonstration even outside the GHQ.

On 29th May, Imran Khan in a video message on social media had defended his party workers protest on May 09. In his video message, he had said people saw that Rangers, which was military, was abducting him unlawfully and baton-charging people and him. “If they had no right to protest peacefully! And where they had to demonstrate, in front of GHQ, where there is army, in the cantonments, where else they had to protest,” Imran questioned. Peaceful protest was their right, he had asserted. He, however, added that those involved in arson should be proceeded against strictly.

The News reported on July 16, 2023, Imran Khan appeared before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the May 9 violent incidents and defended his party workers. When was asked why the PTI supporters protested inside the cantonment areas, he said, “people were bound to go there because he was arrested by a commander.”

The PTI founder chairman, however, rejected the allegation that he had provoked his workers and maintained that the protesters were acting on their own and went to those places voluntarily.