ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party on Tuesday rejected a police complaint lodged over a gun attack on the ex-premier for not including the names of people it nominated as suspects.
Khan escaped the attack on November 3 with gunshot wounds to his legs. It occurred as the former premier led his motorized caravan through the crowds of supporters in Wazirabad city on way to Islamabad, demanding early elections.
Khan has accused PM Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, the counterintelligence chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, of plotting the hit on him. The- ex-premier has not provided any evidence in support of his accusation, while the government and the military have denied it.
In its complaint to the police, Khan’s party nominated the three officials, but a First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the Wazirabad police on Monday didn’t include the said names.
“We are not going to take this blatant injustice,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Twitter.
“The person who suffered the assassination attempt has given three names, all must be on the FIR, and until then, it is JUNK!”
On Monday, Khan said his opponents plotted the hit after they tried and failed to get him “out of the way [politically].”
The former premier, who was ousted in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April, said an intelligence agency produced a video clip few months ago that accused him of blasphemy.
He said a few journalists later came up with another video, purportedly showing how he had hurt the sentiments of the people.
“Then the ruling party information minister along with the daughter of the former prime minister, Maryam Safdar, they then go on television, saying how I have upset the sentiments of the people,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson.
“It’s then that I went on air and said this is a planned thing, because if they assassinated me... so they made it out it was a religious fanatic who would kill me.”
Hours after the attack on Khan, a video statement of the suspected attacker had emerged online, in which he said he had acted alone and wanted to kill the ex-premier Khan for “misleading the people.”
Hammad Azhar, a Khan aide, noted that police were made complainant, while the names of the three persons nominated by Imran Khan were missing from the FIR.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said his party had clarified that this FIR would be “legal” only if it named Shehbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah and Faisal Naseer as suspects.
“Any change in these names is not acceptable to Tehreek-e-Insaf and to us, the FIR will be a worthless piece of paper,” Hussain said on Twitter.
Khan has previously said his ouster was part of a United States-backed “foreign conspiracy” for pursuing an independent foreign policy for Pakistan. Washington and Khan’s opponents who are now in power deny the claim.
Khan’s party plans to resume its march toward the capital on Thursday, seeking snap elections in the country. Caravans of Khan’s supporters are expected to reach Rawalpindi in two weeks, from where Khan would lead them to Islamabad.
