ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has made a conditional offer for talks with the army and called on the military to appoint its representatives for the negotiations, his party said in a statement on Wednesday.
Khan came to power in 2018 and was ousted in 2022 in a parliamentary no-trust vote after what is widely believed to be a falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military, which had helped propel him into office. The army denies political interference.
Since his ouster, Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have led a defiant campaign against the army, even blaming senior military officials for an assassination bid on Khan in November 2022 as he was leading a protest caravan to Islamabad.
The PTI’s founder has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned. Khan says all legal cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics and suppress his party’s popularity.
“We prefer negotiations with the real decision-makers, the military leadership, instead of this puppet government,” Khan said in a statement from prison shared with the media by the PTI. “We have given Mahmood Khan Achakzai the mandate for negotiations. If the military leadership appoints their representative, we will hold conditional talks.”
Achakzai, a Pashtun politician from southwestern Balochistan, is the top leader of a six-party opposition alliance which includes the PTI.
“The first demand for negotiations is to return our stolen mandate,” Khan added, referring to his party’s allegation of widespread rigging of February 8 general elections to deprive the PTI of its actual number of seats.
“The second demand is the release of prisoners and the dismissal of false cases. The third stage is the conduct of fair and transparent elections, without which the integrity of the country is at risk.”
Khan and his party have complained of an ever-widening crackdown against the party since May 9 last year when alleged supporters of the PTI attacked and damaged government and military installations. Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders were arrested following the riots and some continue to remain behind bars as they await trial.
The army has also initiated military court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence. Many close Khan aides have since deserted him, due to what is widely believed to be pressure from the army, which denies interfering in politics.
Khan and the PTI say the May riots have been used as a ruse by political rivals and the military to crack down on the party, which is arguably the most popular in Pakistan. Khan has also been indicted under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism law in connection with the violence. A section of Pakistan’s 1997 anti-terrorism act prescribes the death penalty as maximum punishment. Khan has denied the charges, saying he was in detention when the violence took place.
Responding to Khan’s latest offer for talks, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar accused the PTI founder of “dragging” state institutions into the country’s politics.
“He does not want state institutions to remain neutral,” Tarar said, “and wants to involve them in politics for his own political benefit.”
– Arab News
