ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday accused former prime minister Imran Khan of plotting to bring armed men to the Islamabad-Rawalpindi border to trigger clashes between protestors and law enforcers and create bloodshed.
Khan, who kicked off his “long march” to Islamabad from Lahore’s Liberty Chowk on Friday, has vowed to hold a peaceful protest against the government in the capital. Ousted via a parliamentary vote of confidence in April, Khan has refused to recognize Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and has demanded snap elections.
Sharif’s government has rejected Khan’s demands and repeatedly said elections would be held late next year, as per schedule. Marching towards the capital with thousands of supporters, Khan hopes to mount pressure on the government and ultimately force it to announce a date for early elections.
Sanaullah spoke to reporters at a news briefing, telling them Khan did not intend to hold a peaceful sit-in protest at specific locations in Islamabad.
“His purpose is to drop bodies, create such a law-and-order situation that people clash with law enforcement agencies,” Sanaullah said. “And in that clash or violence, he either wants people to get killed by the actions of both sides or [he hopes] his own people do something,” the minister added.
Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan (C) addresses his supporters during an anti-government long march towards Islamabad to demand early elections, in Lahore on October 29, 2022. (AFP)
Sanaullah then played an audio clip for the media which featured a conversation purportedly between ex-federal minister and Khan’s aide, Ali Amin Gandapur, and an unidentified person.
“How can he [Imran Khan] claim that he’s holding a peaceful march,” Sanaullah asked. “Why is he trying to gather [armed] men and guns at the Islamabad-Rawalpindi border? What will they do with these guns, spread the message of peace?”
The minister said if the government takes action based on this development alone, then no one should object that a peaceful march was disrupted.
“We will protect all citizens and property in Islamabad at any cost,” the minister said.
Sanaullah called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, where Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is in power, to take action against Gandapur and the unidentified person in the audio clip.
He also called on the provincial government of Punjab to arrest the “armed persons” Khan was trying to gather at the Islamabad-Rawalpindi border.
“We have also informed the Punjab government that armed people were accompanying Imran Khan yesterday in Lahore,” he said. “If the chief secretary and IG Punjab do not arrest these people then they will be held responsible [if anything unfortunate happens.”
In the audio clip, the voice believed to be Gandapur’s can be heard instructing the unidentified person to “ready the men and stuff [guns and ammunition]” at a location near the Islamabad airport.
