Imran Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on Wednesday stated that a narrative has been created with an agenda to accuse him of inciting the public to protest at the General Headquarters (GHQ) during the May 9 riots.
In a statement released on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he clarified that in the nearly three-decade history of PTI, there has never been an instance of violent protests. “Over the past two and a half years, the worst tactics were used against PTI to incite violence,” he added. In November 2022, he said that there was an assassination attempt on him, and even his request for an FIR of his choice was denied.
The former prime minister further revealed that his residence was attacked twice by military personnel. On one occasion, during his court appearance, there was a deliberate plan to assassinate him by deploying plainclothes individuals, he added.
On May 9, he explained that the masses were incited by the humiliating abduction of a former prime minister and the leader of Pakistan’s largest and most popular political party, which could have led to a major incident.
He added that PTI’s political training does not include elements of violence and the party believes in political, constitutional, and legal struggles.
Imran Khan said that May 9 was a false flag operation. “Those who stole the CCTV footage of May 9 are the real culprits of that day. Their intellect is such that they compare the May 9 incident to the Capitol Hill protest in the USA, where a thorough investigation and review of CCTV footage led to the punishment of only those involved, without implicating the entire Republican Party,” he added.
Separately, Imran said that certain individuals with no understanding of social media were dishing out “digital terrorism” labels.
A post on Imran’s X account said: “The nation is being hated by calling the entire Pakistani nation as terrorists. A few people living in the 70s who are completely ignorant of how social media works are distributing the title of digital terrorism.” He said that if everyone who supported his party was regarded as a “digital terrorist” then a gap would be created between the military forces and the people.
“Ninety per cent of the population stands with PTI, 90pc of the people voted in the favour of PTI,” Imran said, adding that people inciting hatred should be mindful of their actions.
“The same thing happened in 1971. On March 25, when Yahya Khan conducted an operation against a large number of people in Dhaka, the results were not good for the country,” he said.
“If the majority of the population are called terrorists even now, it will have dangerous consequences for the country,” he warned.“Countries, governments and societies are built on the basis of ethics. In a society where morals disappear, nothing remains. Today, if people are badmouthing you, they are only talking about the supremacy of the Constitution.”The former prime minister said that demanding supremacy of the Constitution and actual freedom was not treason.He said the “ridiculous cases” being made against the party’s leaders and workers meant that they were “working perfectly peacefully and you began using fascist tactics against them when you could not control them peacefully”.