ISLAMABAD, FEB 8: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has written a “second open letter” to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, stressing that the country’s biggest political party is being “targeted”.
“I wrote an open letter to the Army Chief (you) with sincere intentions for the betterment of the country and the nation, aiming to bridge the growing divide between the military and the public. However, the response was extremely irresponsible and unserious,” the former prime minister stated in the letter.
He said that he was the former prime minister and the leader of the “country’s most popular and largest political party”, and he had dedicated his entire life to bringing global recognition to the nation.
“My 55 years of public life since the 1970s and my 30 years of earnings are fully transparent. My life and death are solely tied to Pakistan,” the letter read.
Khan expressed his concerns regarding the military’s image and the potential consequences of the widening gap between the public and the army, citing them as the reason of writing this letter.
Referring to his first letter to the army chief, the PTI founder said that 90% of the public would have support the six points he had highlighted in his initial missive if they had been consulted.
In the letter, the cricketer-turned-politician alleged that the government was installed by manipulating election results through pre-poll rigging. “The authorities passed the 26th Constitutional Amendment through parliament to control the judiciary and Peca [Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act] to silence dissent,” he added.
He noted that political instability and the “might is right” policy plunged the country’s economy into chaos. Khan regretted that the country’s “largest political party” was being targeted and all state institutions were being used for political engineering and revenge.
Referring to his imprisonment, he claimed that he had been placed in solitary confinement and deprived of sunlight for 20 days.
“My exercise equipment, television, and even newspapers have been taken away. They restrict my access to books whenever they wish. Besides those 20 days, I was also locked up for another 40 hours. In the last six months, I have been allowed to speak to my sons only three times,” he added.
Furthermore, he said, his party members travel long distances to meet him, yet they, too, were denied access despite judicial directives. “Only a handful of individuals have been allowed to see me in the past six months. Even my wife is not permitted to meet me, despite clear orders from the Islamabad High Court,” he added.
Meanwhile, he claimed that over 2,000 of our workers, supporters, and party leaders were still awaiting bail hearings, with judges deliberately delaying their cases.
“A draconian law like Peca has been imposed to curb free speech on social media and the internet. As a result, Pakistan’s GSP+ status is now at risk,” he added.
First letter
It may be noted that the deposed prime minister, in his first letter to the army chief, had urged him to reconsider policies and called for the formation of a judicial commission.
The six-point letter, according to Khan’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry, addressed “fraudulent elections” and discussed the alleged promotion of money launderers, the 26th Constitutional Amendment and the Al-Qadir Trust case verdict.
However, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan rejected notion of a “policy shift” after the first letter to the army chief, saying that Imran had wrote the letter in his capacity as former prime minister.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Public and Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah claimed that Khan’s letter to COAS General Munir intended to create divisions between the military and the public or sow misunderstandings within the army’s command. He had challenged the ex-premier to engage in political struggle only in the parliament.
The letter came weeks after PTI leaders — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan — met the army chief, with the party’s chairman saying that they discussed the overall security situation.
It also held importance as the former ruling party ended its negotiations with the PML-N-led government last month, in which the PTI had demanded two things — the formation of judicial commissions on events that transpired on May 9, 2023, and November 24-27 as well as the release of “all political prisoners”, including Khan.
In December last year, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that no political leader’s desire for power should be more important than Pakistan’s interests.
The ISPR top spokesperson’s comments came in response to a question about purported backdoor talks between the PTI and the establishment.
“All political parties and leaders are respectable to us. No individual, his politics and his desire for power are above Pakistan,” he said during a media briefing.
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