- Letter reads terrorism rises because all institutions have been tasked with crushing the PTI in the country
- It is essential for stability and security of country that gap between the army and the people be reduced: letter
ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said on Monday that party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has written a letter to COAS Gen Asim Munir regarding the “need to re-evaluate policy,” emphasizing that existing strategies are fostering resentment among the public, widening the gap between civilians and the military.
“In letter, text of which will be made public, PTI founder urges the army chief to reconsider certain policies,” PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar said while talking to the media outside Adiala Jail on Monday.
Barrister Gohar said that Imran, in his letter, has reminded the army chief that as the former prime minister and the founder of the country’s biggest political party PTI, he wanted to point out “certain things because of which the distance between the people and the establishment was widening”.
Continuing quoting Imran, Gohar said: “This [mistrust] should not take place at all, but there are certain reasons because of which this gulf is widening.
“Owing to those reasons, the army is being blamed, so the policy reasons must be reevaluated.”
According to Gohar, the letter also touched upon some of the reasons which have created the perceived gap between the establishment and the public, including the 2024 elections, the passage of the 26th amendment and the recent Peca Act, and how social media was being targeted to suppress dissent.
Barrister Gohar reiterated that Imran had written the letter in the above context “in great detail”, adding that the letter would be made public today.
Elaborating on the letter’s contents, PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry said Imran had urged the security institutions to take notice that there was “a need of the hour to change the policies that are currently in effect in the country.”
Advocate Ch said the primary reason for the mistrust between the establishment and the people, according to Imran, was the alleged rigging in the February 8 elections that led to a “minority government being imposed over the majority’s wishes”.
“This is the first point of contention between the people and the institutions,” Advocate Ch added.
He said the second point in the letter was the passage of the 26th amendment through which the “judiciary has been controlled” and which was brought to “ruin the justice system and to provide cover to the election fraud and Imran Khan’s cases”.
Advocate Ch alleged that the reason for the delay in the Al-Qadir Trust case sentencing was to impact Imran’s appeals after “court packing” by placing them before “favoured and pocket judges”.
“The nation is strictly unhappy with this disrespect of the court and justice system with the country’s wider intelligentsia and lawyers also agitated against this.”
Advocate Ch also criticised the recent changes to the Peca law to “put restrictions on the internet, social media, freedom of opinion and expression, opposing thoughts and to only promote favourable voices”.
The PTI lawyer said the country’s IT industry was at stake and the human rights violations in the country also jeopardised the GSP+ status. “Imran Khan says that if we don’t treat our citizens as per international law then there will be an increase in difficulties,” he added.
Explaining the fourth point, he said: “All institutions have been tasked with crushing the PTI in the country. Terrorism is increasing because those responsible for stopping it are busy with the PTI … because of this their attention has been taken away from their real job and terrorism has increased in the country even more than 2013.”
The sixth point that Imran highlighted was the “blame for the contravention and violation of the court and judiciary’s orders also falling on the military”.
Chaudhry said there were some forces that did not allow implementation of court orders. “The blame for daily threats to journalists and judges is also falling on the institutions because of which the gap between them and the people is widening when the need is for policies to be quickly changed and set as per the law and the Constitution so that the political instability in the country is reduced,” he added.
The PTI lawyer said that as per Imran, it was difficult for the country to find shore unless there was a change in policies.
He added that Imran asked in today’s media interaction what solutions were there to the country’s issues apart from free and fair elections, implementation of the law and Constitution, respect for human rights and a free media and internet.
Chaudhry said that to another question, Imran said: “Whether someone else does not, it is my duty as a former prime minister to highlight the threats to the country.”
The PTI lawyer said the “change of policy” was being demanded “in the nation’s broader interest. This is not a matter of individuals but the nation’s future and every citizen”.
The text of the “open letter” was later posted in a message on Imran’s X account. It said the fifth of Imran’s six points was the “poor state of the economy due to political instability in the country“.
Conforming with the points earlier divulged by Chaudhry, the letter concluded by saying: “It is essential for the stability and security of the country that the gap between the army and the people be reduced, and there is only one way to reduce this growing gap, and that is for the army to return to its constitutional boundaries, separate itself from politics and fulfil its assigned responsibilities, and this work will have to be done by the army itself, otherwise, this growing gap will become fault lines in the improvement of national security.”
Imran had complained last week that none of the several petitions, filed by him and his party, assailing violations of human rights and election laws, were taken up by the Supreme Court over the past 18 months.
In letters addressed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and head of the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench, Justice Aminuddin — released by his legal team on Thursday night — the PTI founder had also slammed the government of the day for enacting laws to target his party.
Also attached with the letter was ‘evidence’ of the government’s high-handedness, including lists of party workers who had gone missing, were injured or killed by alleged state action.
The letter and its annexures, spanning hundreds of pages, included photographs, medical reports, court orders and petitions, press clippings and other relevant documents that the PTI leader believed substantiated his claims.
