Form committee under Chief Justice to probe attack on me: Imran Khan

Lahore: Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday accused the powerful military leadership of giving a "cover-up" to the assassination attempt on his life and demanded the formation of a committee, under Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial's supervision, to probe the incident.

"I cannot believe that those tasked to protect Pakistan's borders are involved in giving a 'cover-up' to the assassination attempt on my life," 70-year-old Khan said while addressing a press conference at his residence here.

Khan has blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and Major General Faisal Naseer of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for hatching a plot to assassinate him.

He suffered bullet injuries in the right leg on November 3 when two gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him and others standing on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area, some 150-km from Lahore, where he was leading the long march to press for snap polls.

"Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah could not have made my assassination plan on their own had they not got the support of the powerful circles (military establishment)," Khan said, adding that even the police and intelligence officers who come under the Punjab government of PTI received orders from somewhere else (establishment) to protect the arrested shooter and twist facts.

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said that "two to three people” were behind the plot to assassinate him. "I know that the country’s armed forces are giving sacrifices for the country <…> but there are black sheep in every institution.

"But the person who planned this, I want them to cooperate with the JIT. Action should be taken against those deliberately obstructing justice." He appealed to Chief Justice Bandial for justice. "Powerful people who I have named will not allow justice to be carried out. If the chief justice backs a powerful inquiry, only then can I get justice," he said.

Khan also named three journalists of a leading media group for their alleged involvement in the plot.

He said two plans were made to assassinate him. "Plan A was to directly eliminate me but in that case they were to be blamed as I had recorded a video in which I mentioned the names of these four. Then they went for 'plan B' to have me murdered like that of Punjab governor Salman Taseer at the hand of some so-called religious fanatic so that they could get away from their crime," he claimed.

Khan also named PML-N leadership – Maryam Nawaz, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, federal minister Javed Latif – for being part of the planning to make doctored videos accusing him of blasphemy to stoke religious sentiments against him.

He warned the military establishment that "countries break up when the establishment turns against the country's largest political party (PTI).” Earlier, Khan alleged that former Army chief Gen (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa wanted to have him murdered and impose a state of emergency in the country.

Khan, who had been at loggerheads with Bajwa ever since his ouster from power in April by a no-confidence motion, made the startling allegation during an interview with private Bol News channel in Lahore.

Khan said he was being told by many to stop levelling allegations against Bajwa as he has retired, but he could not cover up “the crimes that Gen Bajwa had committed”, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting the channel's Lahore bureau chief.

According to the report, Khan, in the as-yet unaired interview, claimed that Bajwa "wanted me dead".

Bajwa is now the main target of Khan who not only sees him as the sole reason for all his failures in the government but also alleges that the retired general had toppled his government as part of a US conspiracy.

Last month, Khan accused Bajwa of playing a "double game" against his government and said that he committed a "big mistake" by extending the tenure of then military chief in 2019.

Gen Bajwa, 61, retired on November 29 after getting a three-year extension in 2019 by the then Prime Minister Khan, who turned out to be the biggest critic of the Pakistan Army.

The powerful Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.

Khan, the former cricketer-turned-politician, is the only Pakistani prime minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

He had alleged that the no-confidence vote was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan. The US has denied the allegations.