Daily Times

PTI founding chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan said on Friday that a “dirty election” would create more instability in the country, saying that his party would rather sit in opposition than form a coalition government.

The incarcerated ex-premier’s remarks came during an informal conversation with the media at Adiala jail.

Imran claimed that 90 per cent of soldiers will be voting for his party come February 8. Referring to former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa – who Imran accuses of ‘orchestrating’ his ouster – the PTI leader said that the former spy chief, in a meeting at The President’s Secretariat said “the entire army was with you”.

He added that Bajwa’s decisions “ruined Pakistan”. However, Imran clarified that the entire institution cannot be blamed for what happened. He said the current objective is to bring “incompetents” to power, “to have a parliament that can be easily controlled”.

“I have been saying since March 19, 2023, that there is no solution except holding free and fair elections,” the former premier reiterated. “My first mistake was to form the government. I should have gone for re-elections,” he said, adding that “extending Gen (retd) Bajwa’s tenure was my second mistake”.

He said it would rather be useful for the party to sit in the opposition than make a coalition government. “A dirty election will create more instability in the country,” Imran said. He added that reforms were needed to reduce economic deficit and for rule of law.

Imran criticised Nawaz for contesting in the upcoming elections and questioned the PML-N’s performance during its 16 months in power. The PTI chief elaborated that during the tenure of Nawaz’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, the economy suffered immeasurably, around 1.5 million professionals left the country and Pakistan’s external deficit increased manifold. The PTI leader claimed that when he was ousted from power, the growth rate hovered around 6.7 per cent which “reduced to zero” during Shehbaz’s tenure, inflation increased from 12.4 per cent to 38 per cent.

He further added that incidents of terrorism saw a marked decrease during his tenure and his government had good relations with then Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, which also saw a downturn during PML-N’s tenure and due to the foreign policy adopted, Pakistan was isolated. Referring to the recent flare-up with Iran, the worst in the country’s history, the PTI founder said it was wrong for Tehran to carry out strikes in Pakistan and the Iranian leadership made a mistake as it should not have happened.

Iran’s enemy, Israel, will try to spoil our relations, he said and added that his government also tried its best to maintain cordial relations with India. “However, by expelling Afghans we have increased hatred.” Maintaining that guns and violence do not solve issues, Imran said a political government seeks political solutions and the solution to the country’s current issues is to hold free and fair elections.