- Requests video link facility for court appearances due to threats to his life
- Demands a ‘public trial’ of Toshakhana case
LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday penned a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, requesting adequate security arrangements for his court appearances due to “another assassination attempt” on his life.
In the letter, the former prime minister said: “I wish to draw your attention to a very critical issue. Ever since the removal of my government through a regime change operation, I have been confronted with questionable FIRs, threats and finally an assassination attempt.”
PTI Chairman @ImranKhanPTI’s letter to Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/OqILcKQfiY
— PTI (@PTIofficial) March 5, 2023
He complained of not being provided proper security despite being a former prime minister, alleging that the current prime minister, interior minister, and a senior intelligence agency officer were involved in the failed assassination plot against him.
“There are clear indications of another assassination attempt being plotted on my life,” he said.
“To date, there are 74 cases against me and I am being made to appear in court for hearings time and often. I am chairman of the largest political party in the country and wherever I go massive crowds naturally follow. This further aggravates the prevailing security threat. Right to life is fundamental right under the Constitution and there is a grave threat to my life,” he added.
In his last appearance before the LHC, Imran said that there was a “total failure” of official security, and the same happened in Islamabad when he had to appear before different courts.
The PTI chief requested the CJP to take action on this threat being faced by him from those in power and to ensure that adequate security arrangements are made if his appearance is necessary.
He also requested a video link facility for court appearances due to severe threats to his life, which would prevent massive crowds from showing up in support whenever he has to make a court appearance.
‘Public trial of Toshakhana case’
Earlier in the day while addressing the party workers, the former prime minister demanded a “public trial” of the Toshakhana case, hours after police claimed he was avoiding arrest after they returned empty-handed from his Lahore residence without even meeting the PTI chairman.
He said while others, who had looted the Toshakhana, had been allowed to go scot-free, he was being summoned in the same case despite the fact that he had done nothing wrong. “I want public hearing of the Toshakhana reference,” he demanded.
Imran Khan said how ironic it was that while he was being implicated in false cases, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders of the coalition government were given a ‘clean chit in corruption references.
Similarly, he went on to say, he was not present at the time of protest outside the ECP building, but he was still implicated in the case.
Imran made it clear that if somebody was under the impression that he would give up on his struggle, he was grossly mistaken.
He said he never bowed before any individual or institution in his life, nor he will let his workers bow down to anyone.
Appreciating the workers, he said he could see a crowd become a nation. The extent to which these “thieves and robbers” have taken Pakistan, only a nation can compete with them, he declared.
“No one can stand in front of this nation. Our nation was built on a specific slogan,” Imran Khan said.
The PTI chief said a nation that is a slave to someone can never do achieve greatness.
Taking a jibe at the current ruling parties, Imran said they were never loyal towards Pakistan, adding that they are well settled abroad.
Challenging the government to place his name in the Exit Control List, he said he did not wish to leave the country. He said there were no security arrangement at courts, and that he knew his life was still in danger.
