LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Senior leader of Pakistan's ruling PML-N party, Mohammad Zubair, who is a spokesperson for party supremo Nawaz Sharif, on Friday called for an investigation into the release of a confessional video of the suspected attacker of ex-premier Imran Khan who was wounded in a gun attack on Thursday.
Khan was shot in the leg and injured in an apparent assassination attempt as he waved to crowds from atop a truck-mounted container from which he was leading a protest march on Islamabad to pressure the government to announce early elections.
Within an hour of the attack, police released a video statement of the suspect, in which he said he had acted alone and wanted to kill Khan for "misleading the people."
Leaders of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party have questioned the confession, asking why police released it before the investigation was completed. Over a dozen people were injured in the gun attack and many eye witnesses have said shots were fired from multiple points, raising questions about whether more than one shooter was involved.
"In which police station was the video recorded? What was the need for the video? This, in itself, deserves to be investigated separately," Zubair told Arab News in a phone interview.
"I mean the whole thing is laughable, that his confession was released within half an hour [of the attack] ... Where does something like this ever happen in the world? The place [scene of the crime] should have been taken over, the witnesses should have been secured," Zubair added, raising questions about the ability of the government and investigators in Punjab, where Khan's PTI party is in power, to preserve the crime scene and evidence.
Responding to PTI's allegations that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and ISI director-general for counter intelligence, Major General Faisal Naseer, were responsible for the attack on Khan, Zubair said the allegations and demands that the three officials resign were "premature."
Asked about the government's strategy to counter nationwide protests expected today, Friday, after a call by the PTI, the PML-N leader said it was still "grasping the whole thing."
"[It] depends on what the PTI strategy would be," he said. "Are they coming to Islamabad and are they carrying on with the long march? It all depends on their reaction. We are in the government, we have to do our daily jobs."
He ruled out that the federal government was contemplating imposing governor's rule in Punjab.
Zubair's remarks come as Khan's supporters began gathering again early on Friday at the spot of the apparent assassination attempt and in cities across Pakistan, calling on the former prime minister to restart his march on Islamabad.
Khan has announced he will address a press conference from Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital where he is undergoing treatment.
At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah urged Khan and his aides to review and beef up his security.
Addressing the allegations against him, PM Sharif and ISI's Naseer and what he called incitement to violence by Khan's aides, he said this was "extremely regrettable."
He said the three top officials had been accused "without investigation and without evidence'."
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Khan in his speeches had crossed the "red lines of religion," which was why a fanatic attacked him.
“The language the former prime minister [Imran Khan] used time and again … he crossed red lines of religion due to which a fanatic attacked,” Asif said on the floor of Pakistan's parliament Friday.
“I think the incident that unfolded yesterday, the videos of the accused show that religious fanaticism is behind this,” he said, referring to confessional statements by the suspect.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif addresses a session in parliament in Islamabad, Pakistan, on November 3, 2022. (@NAofPakistan)
The minister said the civilian-led Intelligence Bureau (IB) agency had informed the Punjab government on October 28 that a bomb or gun attack could target Khan’s march.
Asif said those behind the assault must be brought to justice but incident should not be used for political gains.
