ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan said on Monday he wanted to see Pakistan enjoy "friendship" with all nations but be a slave to none, saying the country's foreign policy didn't put the interests of its people first.
Khan, who was ousted in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April, has said his ouster was part of a United States-backed “foreign conspiracy.” Washington and Khan’s opponents deny the allegation.
“I’ve been saying one thing for the last 26 years, that we want friendship with everyone, but slavery of none,” Khan, who was injured in a gun attack on his protest march earlier this month, said while addressing his supporters through a video link.
Khan said he had even pushed for friendship with archrival neighboring India when he was in power.
Referring to Pakistan’s cooperation with the US in the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks, he said Pakistan had sacrificed its people in the war because “we aren’t independent. We are slaves.”
“Our foreign policy doesn’t protect the interests of Pakistani people,” the ex-premier said, adding that he never wanted enmity with any country.
“We want good relationship with China, Russia and US. We don’t want slavery of anyone,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Khan’s party requested the country’s top court to constitute a judicial commission to investigate the “assassination attempt” on the ex-premier in Wazirabad city on November 3.
People walks past the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 4, 2022. (AP/File)
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party simultaneously filed petitions in all five registries of the Supreme Court, seeking an inquiry into the Wazirabad attack, journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing in Kenya and an alleged video leak of Senator Azam Swati and his family.
The PTI said it was not satisfied with the first information report (FIR) of the Wazirabad shooting registered by the Punjab police. The attack killed one man and injured Khan among then others as the former premier led his motorized caravan to the capital with crowds of supporters.
The police registered the FIR after a delay of four days, but it did not include the names of PM Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, whom Khan has accused of plotting the attack.
“It is respectfully requested that the instant application may kindly be put before the honorable Supreme Court for an appropriate and timely order for the constitution of a Commission… to hold public inquiry in the above-said issues and record its findings in a detailed report,” the PTI said in its petition submitted in Supreme Court registries.
The party urged the top court to look into the FIR of the Wazirabad shooting, saying the police had “refused to register the FIR according to a complaint submitted by the complainant.”
On Monday morning, only a few PTI legislators were allowed to enter the Supreme Court building in Islamabad to file their petition.
Speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry, PTI Vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his party was simply demanding enforcement of the law with regard to the FIR of the attempt on Khan’s life.
“It is unfortunate that our right to get an FIR registered is not being recognized,” he said, urging the top court to fully investigate the matter and bring forth the facts and those behind attack.
PM Shehbaz Sharif has already written letters to Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial to constitute separate judicial commissions on the Wazirabad attack and the murder of Sharif.
Legal experts say the court may fix the PTI petition for hearing as the government has already requested the chief justice to set up a judicial commission.
“If the parties, both PTI and the government, have a consensus on the formation of a judicial commission to probe these incidents, then let the supreme court do it and investigate the matters,” Abid Saqi, an advocate at the Supreme Court, told Arab News.
The court will make a decision on the petition after hearing all sides and “usually such petitions are admitted, and relief is granted,” he said.
Advocate Taimur Malik said the PTI’s submission of petitions in all five registries of the Supreme Court had enough “moral and symbolic value” and was an “unprecedented way of moving the court to seek justice.”
“It is up to the Supreme Court now whether it directs the federal government to constitute a commission of inquiry or the chief justice may constitute a Supreme Court bench to look into the matter,” Malik told Arab News.
Arshad Sharif, a prominent TV talk show host, was shot dead in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on October 23, in what the Kenyan police said was a case of “mistaken identity.”
But Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sanaullah last week said Arshad, who was widely considered to be pro-Khan, was the victim of a targeted killing in Kenya, not an accidental shooting, though he still needed more information on the incident.
