Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, currently imprisoned, announced on Tuesday that his party is prepared to engage in talks with the military. Speaking at a court hearing in Adiala jail, Khan said, “We are ready to hold talks with the military. The army should nominate their representative [for negotiations].”
Khan, who has been in prison for nearly a year, clarified that his party had never made accusations against the army but had only offered criticism. He added that any PTI worker found guilty in the May 9, 2023 riots should face appropriate penalties.
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Khan accused the current government of trying to destroy PTI by creating divisions between the party and the armed forces. When asked why he was seeking talks with the military rather than with political parties, Khan responded, “What is the SIFC? Who is Mohsin Naqvi? There is an undeclared martial law.”
He claimed that Interior Minister Naqvi was representing the military’s interests and blamed him and the Punjab Inspector General for oppressing PTI. Khan also referred to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz as “fascist” due to the arrests of PTI leadership across the province.
Khan alleged that he was “abducted from the judicial complex” during his arrest last year, a move he said was deemed legal by Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Aamer Farooq. He demanded that the IHC CJ recuse himself from his cases and requested his cases be transferred to other judges.
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In response, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Punjab senior minister Marriyum Aurangzeb criticized Khan’s call for negotiations, accusing him of shifting from a defiant stance to an apologetic tone. She questioned the issues on which Khan wants to negotiate with the military and urged him to apologize for the May 9 protests instead of demanding talks.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari echoed Aurangzeb’s sentiments, calling Khan a “fascist ruler” who imprisoned over 100 PML-N leaders in political cases. She criticized PTI leaders for quitting the party after brief jail terms, unlike PML-N leaders who remained loyal to Nawaz Sharif despite arrests.
The latest statement from Khan follows his admission that he directed his party workers to stage a peaceful protest outside the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi before his arrest last year. PTI leadership denied media reports about Khan’s admission, claiming he was misquoted.
Khan also revisited his controversial 2022 statement, clarifying that by “only animals are neutral,” he meant to say the army should be non-partisan and apolitical.
The 71-year-old PTI leader has been imprisoned on numerous charges, including the Toshakhana, cipher, and un-Islamic marriage cases. Although a court suspended his sentence in the Toshakhana case and overturned convictions in the cipher and iddat cases, hopes for his release were dashed when NAB arrested him on fresh charges related to the sale of state gifts. His chances of release further diminished after new charges linked to the May 9 riots followed his acquittal in the iddat case. Khan’s wife, Bushra, has also been imprisoned for months.