Array
Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been clashing with the government of his successor, Shehbaz Sharif, as he tries to return to power while dodging about a hundred corruption investigations, said on Wednesday he expects to be arrested again.
A legion of police officers has encircled the mob of Khan supporters encircling Khan’s house as the deadline approaches for him to hand over several dozen terrorism suspects he is allegedly sheltering.
“Probably my last tweet before my next arrest. Police has surrounded my house,” Khan said on Twitter, attaching a video of riot police deploying outside his home in Zaman Park, Lahore.
My full speech earlier today.
PTI has always been a peaceful & democratic Party. Numerous examples I shared where we showed restraint and chose a peaceful solution to avoid confrontation even if it meant a set back for me or the party.
I ask the authorities to conduct a… pic.twitter.com/Av863plYuP
Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) May 17, 2023
Khan also sent a vaguely threatening video message to the Sharif government, warning that if it escalated the confrontation, the outcome would not be “any good to anyone.”
Khan once again accused false-flag saboteurs of staging attacks last week on military assets after he was arrested, demanded a full investigation of his theories, and said he would accept nothing less than snap elections to resolve the “political crisis” surrounding his legal status:
When the illegal caretaker Punjab govt announced that 40 terrorists were hiding in my house. Should they not have named them?
The reason they didn’t was because what they were planning was to bring 30-40 people with them and then accuse me for harboring terrorists just like last…
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) May 18, 2023
“Any independent investigation will show that any people who came out for me were peaceful protesters,” he insisted.
Khan talked at some length about Pakistan’s history of using police and military force against political opponents and suggested all of the corruption charges pending against him are merely a pretext for forcing him out of the prime minister race before he can return to power and investigate the real corruption in Pakistan.
Khan claimed his supporters in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have been unfairly arrested, and “even women and children were being abducted and tortured,” which he said was a violation of Islamic religious teachings.
