ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that the army chief should be appointed on merit and that he was not bothered by any individual being appointed to the top military post in Pakistan.
Speaking to senior journalists at the Chief Minister’s House in Lahore on Wednesday, he said that they [the coalition government] wanted to bring the army chief of their choice, which he said was a ‘security threat’ because “how can a criminal appoint the army chief?”
Imran said that they were afraid of their corruption, “while I am not afraid”. He said the cypher was not stolen, but its master document was safe at the Foreign Office. “Thankfully they’ve accepted the cypher as a reality… if the investigative committee calls me I would first ask who Donald Lu ordered to remove… and then they were given the NRO,” he remarked.
“Everything is recorded”
The PTI chairman said that he will not reveal the date of long march to anyone as “everything is recorded… I have kept the date to myself… Shah Mehmood Qureshi is my vice-chairman, I did not tell him either”.
Commenting on upcoming by-elections, he said, “I think October 16 is far away. There may not be a by-election at all”.
“Toshakhana”
Imran said the incumbent rulers used to say that the Election Commission was biased, “but now they want to disqualify me in the Toshakhana case”. He challenged that his Toshakhana case was jointly heard with Zardari and Nawaz Sharif’s cases. “Did I do something illegal… no… while they illegally took expensive vehicles home.”
Negotiations
Imran Khan said that “everything can be done through negotiations… in the end things are settled only through negotiations”.
The PTI chief said that “they have appointed a NAB chairman of their choice… they want to appoint all heads of institutions of their own will… the Election Commission has never been so biased”.
