–Says sniper tried to assassinate him
LAHORE
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday berated the incumbent government, saying that the rulers are nervous about the appointment of the Army Chief.
Speaking to a delegation of journalists at his residence in Zaman Park, the PTI chief said that there were differences with the establishment for not removing Usman Buzdar from the post of the Punjab chief minister, adding that the establishment and the government were on the same page on the matters of foreign policy. The PTI chief said that the differences occurred after his [return] from Russia.
Imran Khan has said that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has formally started the investigation into the assassination attempt on him in Wazirabad, ARY News reported.
The PTI chief was injured during a gun attack while leading the party’s long march in Punjab’s Wazirabad on November 3. A PTI supporter, Moazzam Nawaz, was killed in the incident while 14 others, including the former premier, were wounded.
The former premier claimed that two shooters had tried to assassinate him in the city of Wazirabad including the sniper who shot him in the leg. “I am 100% sure that sniper was hired to assassinate me in Wazirabad,” Imran Khan claimed, adding that CM Pervaiz Elahi was not responsible FIR registration issue in the attack case.
He went on to say only early elections could avert the country’s looming “economic collapse”. Meanwhile, in an interview with FRANCE 24 today, Khan said that he was convinced that the recent attack on him was an assassination plot hatched by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah. He claimed that the suspect arrested was merely a decoy and that there was another gunman at the rally in the eastern city of Wazirabad.
The former premier said he feared further attempts on his life but vowed to rejoin the anti-government march. He said he would take “more precautions” but vowed to carry on regardless of the risks, insisting that the protest march would remain peaceful.
“They think that the only way to get me out of the way is actually [to] eliminate me. So I think that there is a threat, still.”
Giving his take on the country’s economy, Imran said that the fear of Pakistan’s default increases because the economy cannot be put on the right track due to political instability, but the only entity on which Pakistan’s economy is heavily dependent is the Overseas Pakistanis.
Addressing the long march participants in Jehlum, Khushab, Peshawar and Chakdara through video link, Imran Khan claimed that the rulers will once again go into self-imposed exile.
He said that the debt default risk has reached 80 percent today which means Pakistan couldn’t be able to pay its installments. He said the country’s imports have declined drastically, while the income of the country is declining and the debts are increasing and to pay debt installments, the rulers will have to take more loans from other countries.
