Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said the age of military coups was over and there would be no coup in Pakistan despite opposition’s press for the exit of the government due to the escalating crises.
Speaking exclusively to Indian NDTV’s Barkha Dutt in Islamabad, Imran said, “The age of martial law in Pakistan is now permanently over.”
The army, he said, realises that people will not accept this anymore.
“The threat to Pakistan’s government’s survival lies in two matters that are before the Supreme Court – one accuses the government of using a secret memo to ask the US for help against a military takeover; the other holds Pakistani PM Yousaf Raza Gilani responsible for failing to reopen cases of corruption against President Asif Ali Zardari. The government’s legal battles intersect with unprecedented hostility with the army,” he said. Imran also accused Gilani of trying to shield a corrupt president.
Asked about the rise of his party, Imran said the PTI was now the number one party and had the biggest public support. “I think our democracy has evolved. And these entire crises, as you just mentioned in your opening remarks, what has come out is that the army is no longer prepared to come out in the open,” Khan said.
Talking about the “memogate”, Imran said the scandal was such a shameful scandal that if ever the army would have intervened, it would have been then.
“Because, it’s effectively a president asking the US to come and help him get rid of the army hierarchy so that he could serve them better. That’s in effect the “memogate” and normally, the army would have…that would have been enough to take over. I mean, as it is, there is public outrage against that and so you would’ve had the public backing”.
But he said Pakistan had moved on.
“At the same time, the Supreme Court, I mean the Supreme Court has taken a stand. Finally, the Supreme Court, for the first time in Pakistan you’re seeing the court taking on the powerful. Normally, the Supreme Court has been a part of the executive and taken orders from the government literally. For the first time, the Supreme Court is challenging the most powerful people in this country and challenging the corruption cases. And so, we have a vibrant media which is a third pillar and we have a very politically aware public”.
Imran observed that the government was trying to demolish an independent Supreme Court.
“What is…are early elections going to destroy a democracy? Or if the independent judiciary is destroyed, would that destroy a democracy? Pakistan, as I said, has moved on. First time we’ve had an independent Supreme Court. Now, if this government takes on the Supreme Court just so, then it can protect Asif Zardari’s corruption of billions of dollars. I’m afraid, that if you stand…if people stand by the judiciary and it wins, then our democracy wins. If our judiciary loses, our democracy loses,” the PTI chief said.
To a question that certain voices were suggesting that in some ways, the judiciary and the military in this country were on the same side in this debate, Imran replied, “I don’t know if there is any indication of that but all I know is that the Supreme Court has been very lenient with this government”.
To a question about the impression that he was backed by the Pakistani Army, Imran said, “This is what all politicians are petrified of. Because they don’t know what’s happened, how come this tsunami has suddenly built up? But if the army has now helped us, then surely it must be manipulating the Pew polls, which are American opinion polls, where Tehreek-e-Insaaf has been number one for six months now”.
Age of military coups is over: Imran Khan
