ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court questioned former prime minister Imran Khan’s legal counsel on Monday if the ex-premier was striving to bring down the morale of the armed forces by making “anti-military statements” at public rallies.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) raised the question while hearing a case against the country’s media regulator that issued an order last month to ban live television broadcast of Khan’s speeches.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) circulated the notification after the former prime minister held a rally in the federal capital on August 21 in which he criticized the Islamabad police chief along with a female district and sessions judge.
During the course of the hearing, Chief Justice Athar Minallah mentioned Khan’s recent speech in Faisalabad wherein he told his party supporters the incumbent government was avoiding fresh elections in the country since it wanted to appoint an army chief of its own choice to save its top leaders from corruption cases.
“Did you hear Imran Khan’s speech from yesterday,” the top IHC judge was quoted by Geo News. “Do political leaders deliver such speeches? Will everything be put at stake just for this Game of Thrones?”
“Do you want to hurt the morale of the army by giving anti-military statements,” the chief justice continued while questioning Khan’s lawyer. “Do you think that there is anyone in the army who is not a patriot?”
He said that people in the army put their lives in danger to protect their country, adding that statements made in public generated their own impact.
“You want to issue statements as per your wishes and don’t want the regulator to do its job,” he asked.
The chief justice asked the media regulator to perform its responsibilities without fear of interference, adding “several responsible people issue irresponsible statements.”
Khan, who was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in April after losing his parliamentary majority, has been demanding early elections in rallies held across the country. He has also accused his rivals of destroying the national economy by siphoning off public money.
Khan said in his Faisalabad rally the top leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – the two main coalition partners in the government – were hoping to appoint their “favorite” army chief in the coming days.
“They want to bring their own army chief since they have stolen money,” he said. “They are afraid that a strong and patriotic army chief will ask them [about their ill-gotten wealth]. That’s the fear that makes them want to appoint their own army chief.”
The former prime minister said it was important to appoint the top army commander “on merit.”
Pakistan’s current army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is scheduled to retire at the end of November. He was appointed in 2016 and secured an additional term of three years in 2019.
Khan told his followers the current administration was also afraid of snap polls since its leaders feared they would be politically “wiped out.”
Reacting to his statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it “despicable,” saying the ex-premier’s agenda was to undermine the country.
Sharif added in a Twitter post that Khan was “indulging in direct mud-slinging & poisonous allegations against Armed Forces & its leadership.”
