Crisis Deepens

Imran Khan may be confined to a bed in hospital, but he continues to roar even from there

The bullets have failed to dampen Imran Khan’s spirits. All the threats to his life appear only to strengthen the former premier’s resolve to fight till the end.

Following the failed assassination attempt, Imran Khan may be confined to a bed in Shaukat Khanum Trust Hospital, but he continues to roar even from there. He is motivating his support base, urging all the followers to get ready for the final round and warning his rivals that he would be back on the roads sooner than they expect.

Despite the threat to his life, Imran Khan appears unperturbed and determined to lead the long-march once again immediately after recovering from the injuries.

“As soon as I recover, I will be back on the streets and will issue the call for a long march on Islamabad,” said Imran Khan during his interaction with media persons just a day after the shooting.

With both his legs plastered, Imran Khan’s face betrayed no sign of pain or stress. He was his usual confident and composed self despite sustaining four bullets to his both shins and thighs.

For many ardent supporters of Imran Khan, his images of waving one hand and then making a fist soon after the shooting incident have now been etched forever in their memories. A dozen of other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including some of his close aides were wounded and one supporter was dead. Yet, Imran Khan showed no sign of nervousness or panic during or after the shooting. According to former Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Imran Khan had been asking his followers not to worry in his famous one-liner – ‘Aap nay ghabrana nahi hai’ as he was being taken out of the bullet-riddled container.

On Friday, Imran Khan speaking publicly for the first time from Shaukat Khanum Trust Hospital where he is undergoing treatment, demanded fair and independent investigation into the firing incident.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan should order a fair investigation into the incident to expose the culprits, responsible for the attack, he said.

The failed assassination attempt on Imran Khan is yet another ugly turn for worse in Pakistani politics, which already stands dangerously polarized and extremely divided. The spontaneous public outrage in almost all the major and secondary cities of Pakistan following the gun attack on Imran Khan has all the potential to snowball into a full blown anti-government violent movement, which this economically battered country can ill-afford at this critical juncture.

In an unprecedented development, the PTI Chairman Imran Khan and some of his aides not only accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah responsible for the attack, but also named names of an army officer, who allegedly was involved in what they say was illegal action against their party. Imran Khan, in his first press conference after the gun-attack, asked the Army Chief to take notice of the situation and act against those responsible for allegedly conspiring against him.

Imran Khan said despite more than 24 hours after the shooting, he could not get an FIR registered against the alleged accused despite having his party’s government in Punjab.

“The political and police hierarchy of the province is receiving phone calls from certain quarters and they have expressed their inability to register the case… Now, I am demanding the Chief Justice of Pakistan to hold a fair investigation into the case.”

But the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described Imran Khan’s allegations against the institution as “baseless and irresponsible.”

The ISPR said that such allegations, “particularly (against) a senior army officer are absolutely unacceptable and uncalled for. Pakistan army prides itself for being an extremely professional and well-disciplined organisation with a robust and highly effective internal accountability system applicable across the board for unlawful acts, if any, committed by uniformed personnel.”

In the strongly worded statement, the ISPR said that “if the honour, safety and prestige of its rank and file is being tarnished by vested interests through frivolous allegations, the institution will jealousy safeguard its officers and soldiers no matter what.”

“The baseless allegations hurled at the institution/officials… are highly regrettable and strongly condemned. No one will be allowed to defame the institution or its soldiers with impunity. Keeping this in view, the government of Pakistan has been requested to investigate the matter and initiate legal action against those responsible for defamation and false accusations against the institution and its officials without any evidence whatsoever,” it said.

Imran Khan’s allegations and the response from the ISPR shows the widening gulf between the country’s most popular leader and the strongest institution, which should be a matter of concern for all Pakistanis. The sooner the differences between them are resolved the better it is for Pakistan.

Imran Khan once prided being on the same page with the Pakistan Army. Political commentators say that there remains a need for the confidence building measures between the two sides which would eventually help bring down the political temperatures.

They say that on its part, the military leadership must acknowledge the mood of the moment. A vast number of Pakistanis stand opposed to the Shehbaz government simply because what the Sharif clan and their close associates did in the past including picking confrontation with the military leadership, attempts to divide the institution and undermining the Kashmir cause. The scandals of mega corruption including stashing billions of rupees worth in the safe havens abroad through money laundering remain some of the charges against them.

The only way out of this political logjam can be through the installation of a caretaker government to pave the way for free and fair elections. Pakistan cannot afford continuing political unrest and hostilities at this scale in the months to come. This lingering crisis needs immediate solution in the greater interest of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army can help heal the political divide in the country by coaxing the political players to fall in line with the public demand for early elections. This is the only safe way out of the crisis, offering a win-win situation to our institutions as well as the political parties. The country should not be put at stake just for the sake of the Sharif clan.

Meanwhile, a mobile-phone footage of shooting suspect Naveed, who was arrested after the firing incident, revealed that the attacker was accusing Imran Khan of indulging in blasphemy. Even federal ministers, including Rana Sana and Khawaja Asif also alleged that Imran Khan had crossed the religious red-line.

The interior minister called the alleged gunman a “religious extremist,” who had accused the ex-premier of comparing himself to prophets in some of his speeches.

The federal government has also ordered a high-level probe into the incident and the shooter is being interrogated by the police.

However, Imran Khan brushed aside such reports and stated that he knew beforehand that he could be attacked. He claimed that he had warned during a speech on September 24 that the PML-N leadership was hatching a plot to exploit religious sentiments against him.

The PTI chief alleged that Maryam Nawaz, during a press conference, had used similar allegations of blasphemy against him. He was of the view that the PML-N leadership had used identical tactics against the slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

Imran further claimed that the initial investigation revealed that the arrested accused was a drug addict who had nothing to do with religion or any religious organisation. “He was just a cover up, the original shooter was hiding in a nearby plaza and fired bullets at me which passed very close to my face. If I had not fallen on the floor, I would have definitely been hit by those bullets,” Imran said.

However, the former prime minister’s allegations were later rejected by the Shehbaz Sharif government as a “pack of lies”.

Meanwhile, the police officers investigating the case claimed that the mobile phone footage of the incident is clearly suggesting that the accused identified as Naveed was pointing his pistol towards Imran Khan, who was standing on a truck container just a few yards away, when he was intercepted by a party supporter.

“Had the party supporter not snatched the attacker’s pistol, he would have fired a volley of bullets at Imran Khan,” a police officer told this scribe.

Police believed that it was the luck factor which saved Imran Khan’s life.

PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry later alleged that it was “a planned assassination attempt in which automatic weapons were used.

In a tweet message, he stated, ‘It was a well-planned assassination attempt on Imran Khan, the assassin planned to kill Imran Khan and the leadership of PTI. It was not 9mm shots, it was a burst from an automatic weapon, no two opinions about that. It was a narrow escape’.

The initial intelligence report shows that Imran Khan was the prime target of the attempt. Even the gunman Naveed, in his initial statement, admitted that he was there just to shoot Imran Khan. The accused was later shifted to Lahore in the custody of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) which will investigate the incident thoroughly.

Following the attack on Imran Khan, spontaneous protests erupted in almost all major cities and people started gathering at key spots and around the state-owned buildings.

Even in Lahore, Imran Khan’s supporters damaged the main gate of the governor’s office and staged a sit-in at the Cantonment area. There are reports that hundreds of PTI supporters and workers clashed with the police.

Interior minister Rana Sanaullah said that some political elements from Khan’s party were trying to create chaos in the country after the attack.

The attack came less than a week after Imran Khan and his supporters launched a long march from Lahore enroute to Islamabad. The long march began amidst very tense environment as just a day before, DG ISI and DG ISPR made an unprecedented joint press conference in the backdrop of senior journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder and the ongoing political situation in Pakistan.

Reacting to the presser, Imran Khan stated that the DG ISI should not have engaged himself in political matters as he neither have nor wanted any confrontation with the military establishment. Imran Khan claimed that while the people coming on the streets for their rights are peaceful demonstrators, the PML-N had a history of killing innocent people protesting for their rights.