Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged President Dr. Arif Alvi to “act now” to stop the abuse of power and violations of laws and the Constitution.
In a letter to the president of Pakistan, the PTI leader stated that the country is facing a constantly increasing scale of false claims, bullying, arrest and detention, and custodial torture since the removal of the PTI government.
He claimed that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah repeatedly issued death threats to him and that he was made aware of an assassination plot hatched by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military official.
“The plot was operationalized earlier this week during our long march, but Allah saved me and the assassination attempt failed,” he stated.
Imran urged that President Alvi, as the head of the State of Pakistan and also as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces under Article 243 (2) of the Legislature, keep track of the serious wrongdoings that jeopardize Pakistan’s national security.
Khan mentioned three wrongdoings in his letter.
First, he discussed the violation of the official secrets act, which occurred when a private conversation between him and the COAS and another military official was leaked to the media.
“There is a very serious question as to who or what organization was involved in doing a clearly illegal wiretap of the Prime Minister’s secure phone line,” he stated.
Second, he stated that the issue of the cypher was sent by our ambassador to the US in which the US official conveyed a direct threat of regime change to our envoy who reported the same in quotes as was conveyed to him.
He went on to say that the National Security Council meeting held on the issue during his tenure as Prime Minister clearly decided this was an unacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs, but a joint media conference held on 27 October 2022 by the DG ISI and the DG ISPR that had the former contradicting the decision made by the NSC stated that the message of the US government conveyed by our envoy in Washington DC in the cypher was not an unacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs.
He questioned how two military officials could publicly contradict a decision of the NSC.
Thirdly, Imran stated that the parameters of a military information organisation such as the ISPR also need to be clearly defined and limited to information relating to defence and military issues.
He urged President Alvi to draw these clear operational lines for the ISPR as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Imran stated that Pakistan was led by him and the president must protect its democracy and its Constitution.
“No individual or state institution can be above the rule of law,” he said.
