PTI founding chief says his party is not against Pak Army n Targets ECP for rejecting SIC request for allocating reserved NA seats n Says rigging elections to harm the country’s economy and cause further losses.

RAWALPINDI  -  Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chief Imran Khan, while endorsing the stance of the Paki­stan Army’s top brass in connection with a probe into the May 9 violent attacks, has said that his party was not against the military. It is to be mentioned here that the Corps Commanders’ Conference meeting held the other day had com­mitted that planners, instigators, abettors, per­petrators, and desecra­tors of martyrs’ monu­ments and attackers of military installations on May 9 would certainly be brought to justice.

The May 9 attacks re­fer to the violent protests that broke out following the arrest of the incar­cerated PTI founder in a corruption case last year.

“I endorse the dec­laration of the corps commanders meeting. Suspects involved in May 9 incidents should be punished severely,” Imran said this during his informal interaction with media at the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, on Wednes­day. Imran said, “Identi­fication of individuals in­volved on May 9 should be made through CCTV foot­age, just as individuals in­volved in the Capitol Hill attack in the United States were apprehended with the help of CCTV footage.” Khan questioned why a ju­dicial commission had not been formed yet regarding the May 9 incident. “There is no interest in conduct­ing a transparent inqui­ry into the May 9 incident. I insist that those involved in it be punished.” Stress­ing the need for a thorough interrogation into the vio­lent attacks, Khan said that a commission should be formed on the May 9 inci­dents. In the past, the PTI founder had been blaming the “agencies’ men” for ar­son and shooting in some areas during the May 9 vi­olent protests. Khan refut­ed claims of accepting slav­ery, stating, “The nation accepting slavery always ends. There is no army op­position in our party. Crit­icism of elections is not criticism of the army.” He said denying PTI reserve seats amounted to a nega­tion of democracy. “How can those who were not entitled to have [PTI’s] re­serve seats be given them?” “The people of East Paki­stan too were deprived of their mandate which led to the country’s disintegra­tion. These were the most rigged elections in the country’s history,” he add­ed. The PTI founder said that the rigged elections would harm the country’s economy and cause further losses. “Without political stability, the country can­not function, whereas the Sharif family’s politics re­lies on SIFC,” he added. Re­garding allegations of elec­tion rigging, Khan said that the responsibility lies with the caretaker government and the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan. “Even the winners of the elections know that rigging took place. If they think the elec­tions were fair, they should only audit four constituen­cies.” Imran said that votes were given to someone else but others were declared winners. “PML-N did not have more than 25 seats, but their government has been formed,” he added. To a question, the PTI founder said that 70 per cent of the country’s revenue was be­ing spent on returning in­terest and debt. “I wrote a letter to IMF because eco­nomic stability is impossi­ble without political stabil­ity,” he said, about the letter that he had written, calling on the institution to hold an audit of the Feb 8 polls before disbursing loans to Islamabad.