January 9, 2023

IANS - Islamabad

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again slammed the military establishment for not learning from their past mistakes and continuing to meddle with political engineering, despite the public announcement by former Army chief Retd. General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, and the current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, who stated that the military establishment will keep itself away from politics.


"I fear that unfortunately, our establishment has not learnt from the past. Today, we are seeing political engineering being carried out," the former premier said while addressing women workers in Karachi via video link.

Khan linked the recent rumoured merger of Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) factions and the reports about members of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) joining the Pakistan People Party (PPP).

"Similar efforts were also set in motion to bring the PML-N into power in Punjab while a different game is being played in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all in an effort to weaken the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf). I don't understand the purpose of all this."

Khan emphasised that these attempts by the military establishment are aimed at composing a weak setup through political engineering, which he said would not be able to get the country out of its current crisis.

The PTI chief said Pakistan needs a government, which comes into power through a public mandate of five years and the power to take "revolutionary measures" to solve the problems and crisis of the country.

"We want to bring about a peaceful revolution through the ballot box. Pakistan's crisis would soon go beyond the situation in Sri Lanka, which is witnessing an economic crisis."

Lashing out at the military establishment, Khan reminded them of the damages they have caused in the past because of the its unwanted meddling in politics.

"Look at the past and see how much Pakistan has lost out on because of the establishment's political engineering. We have seen long-term disasters for shot-term gains because of this."

The former premier again slammed Gen Bajwa as the prime reason for the current state of affairs in the country, adding that the latter was a powerful man who played a great role for where the country stands today.

"General Bajwa had stabbed me in the back. His set-up is still active in the establishment purportedly to stop the PTI from coming back into power," he said putting complete onus of the ouster of his government on the former army chief.

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