ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir has denied receiving any letters from jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, state-run media reported on Thursday, saying he would dispatch it to PM Shehbaz Sharif if he did receive it. 

Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, said this month he had written two open letters to Munir this month highlighting the alleged shrinking space for democracy in the country due to rights abuses and “rigging” in last year’s election. 

The former prime minister was ousted from power in April 2022 via a parliamentary vote after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful army generals. Khan blames the military for colluding with his political rivals to orchestrate his ouster, a charge the military denies and reiterates that it does not interfere in political matters. 

Munir was speaking to reporters informally at a luncheon hosted for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Islamabad on Thursday when he spoke about Khan’s letters. 

“The Army Chief said he has not received any letter from anyone,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. “However, if it is received, he would dispatch it to the Prime Minister.”

In Khan’s first letter to Munir this month, he called for a reevaluation of current political policies, alleging that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was being targeted by the state.

Tensions between the PTI and the army have remained at fever-pitch especially after Khan’s brief arrest on May 9, 2023, in a land graft case that sparked countrywide protests. 

Angry supporters carrying the PTI’s flags attacked and ransacked military installations in an unprecedented backlash against the army. 

The military has called the day of the protests a “Black Day” and vowed to punish those involved. Since then, at least 5,000 of Khan’s supporters have been arrested, and dozens of his top party leaders have defected after they faced increasing pressure from the military establishment to do so, according to his supporters. The army denies the allegations. 

Thousands of Khan supporters marched toward Islamabad in November 2024 to demand his release from prison. The government says four troops were killed in the ensuing clashes by Khan supporters, a charge the PTI denies and says its loyalists were instead shot and killed.