LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that he finds no reason for a conflict with the army as he reiterated his primary objective of ensuring free, fair and transparent elections in the country.
“I would like to clear one thing that I am not fighting my own army. Who does so? There was no conflict with the army before, and there isn’t at present,” he said during a Twitter space.
During the one-and-a-half-hour-long interactive session on social media, the PTI chief took questions from the participants in relation to the current political situation in the country, state of economy, relations with the army and other topics.
To a question on why he removed Army Chief General Asim Munir as DG ISI back in 2019 when he was the prime minister, Imran Khan did not give a straight answer, rather said what he is witnessing on social media, suggests that the opposition is siding with the Army Chief.
“He [army chief] should address the issue. I cannot say [more].” He said that whenever he criticises the army, it is like how parents criticise his children. “We want a strong army; we would never want a weaker army,” he added. “However, if they think I will be intimidated, I would prefer to die because death is better than slavery.”
Imran Khan claimed that former Army Chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had reached an understanding with the Sharifs and Zardari after the his extension as army chief. “I continued working with him. I tried [till the end] despite the fact I knew he was undermining me.”
Khan said that there was a good chance that he will be arrested on Tuesday (today) and added that it would not make any difference. He further said that the protest afterwards should be ‘peaceful’. “If I were to go to jail, it wouldn’t make a difference. I am mentally prepared for it.”
