Army not involved in politics now, says Khan

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said the Pakistani military was not involved in politics now because if it were so, the army would have taken over on the night of August 30, 2014, when the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek marched towards Parliament House amid incidents of violence.

In an exclusive interview to Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami on his talkshow DNA on Channel 24, the PTI chief said that his party was forced to come out on the streets after all efforts to get justice against alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections failed to move the system.

“PTI’s ‘peaceful Dharna’ inculcated political awareness in the nation and now every Pakistani has learnt to stand up for their rights,” he said, adding that the PTI had emerged as a strong political force after the sit-in protests and was now in a position to lockdown the country whenever it desired if the government did not concede to its demand of formation of an independent judicial commission to probe alleged election rigging.

However, the PTI chief dodged Mr Nizami’s question when he was asked how would the PTI undo the constitutional amendments being carried out by the government in connivance with the opposition parties if the party continued to remain out of the National Assembly, and if it was not able to form a majority government in the next elections.

On including leaders with tainted reputations into the PTI, Imran Khan said that his party’s stance on the issue was very clear that it would not accept any person in its ranks if they did not adhere to the party’s policies.

The PTI chief however remained resolute on his stance of not returning to the National Assembly or the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab until the formation of the judicial commission. “I do not trust Nawaz Sharif’s words because he has gone back on all his promises. The government should know that if it does not allow a transparent investigation into election rigging, the PTI will be back on the roads and this time the sit-in protests would not remain confined to Islamabad’s D-Chowk,” he said.