Imran Khan, the former prime minister and Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is currently in a stand-off with authorities who have surrounded his house.
In his first interview since the police deadline expired, PTI chairman informed DW that an “unprecedented crackdown” is occurring in Pakistan.
During a conversation with DW, he expressed his belief that he will soon be rearrested. He stated, “7,500 of my workers have been arrested. All my senior leadership has been arrested. So what will happen? I don’t know. But I expect to be rearrested,” he said from Lahore.
He alleged that this crackdown is an attempt “to crush the party so that we don’t contest the election; this is why all of this is happening.”
Amir Mir, Punjab’s Information Minister, stated during a news conference on Thursday that there are no plans to rearrest ex-PM.
He clarified, “All we want is for him to hand over the terrorists hiding at his home.”
Mir claimed that intelligence and law enforcement agencies have identified up to 40 individuals accused of attacking military installations during the recent unrest as being concealed at Imran Khan’s home.
Khan dismissed these allegations as “absolute nonsense” during his DW interview.
He explained that he invited journalists to his home, which defused the situation with the police.
The ex-PM said, “I said, come over to my house and see where the terrorists are. So that defused the situation because clearly there were no terrorists, so that’s when the police could not take action.”
While there are still police officers stationed around his home, their numbers have significantly reduced since their initial deployment on Wednesday, he added.
