Pak Government Trying To Put Me Behind Bars To Stop Protests: Imran Khan

Former Pakistan prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday accused Shehbaz Sharif government of attempting to put him behind bars on cooked-up charges and asserted that his party's movement for "real freedom" would not stop until the coalition government led by PML-N announces to conduct elections.

"They [government] are trying to put me behind bars on trumped-up charges so that this movement could be stopped," he said while addressing his party's lawyers forum at his Banigala residence in Islamabad on Tuesday, Dawn reported.

Imran Khan reiterated that the incumbent rulers came into power through a 'foreign conspiracy' and asked his supporters to brace themselves up for any situation if he got arrested on 'fake' first information reports (FIRs).

"Come what may this movement for real freedom will not stop till the announcement of early elections," the Dawn quoted Imran Khan as saying.

Speaking about money laundering case against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Imran said the accused became the judge in his own case.

"You have to stand up for the rule of law... ensuring rule of law is the responsibility of lawyers and judiciary."

He also lashed out at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for holding up notification of MPAs on reserved seats of Punjab Assembly, saying the move was aimed at protecting the government of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

"If they [ECP] fill vacant reserved seats, he [Hamza] would lose the majority," he said.

Imran also alleged that the ECP was working hand in glove with the ruling PML-N to rig next elections. "No matter what they do we will win the elections," he maintained.

Speaking about rising fuel and electricity prices, Imran said he had never witnessed such skyrocketing inflation in the history of the country.

"When they will go in public they will hear these two slogans "thieves and traitors".

Imran said due to the "flawed policies" of the incumbent government, international rating agency Moody's downgraded Pakistan's outlook from stable to negative.

"The credit rating of WAPDA has also been downgraded and now we will not be able to get loans to build dams... they [government] are the biggest threat to national security."

The former premier said his government was toppled despite the fact that it steered the country out of multiple crises including Covid-19 pandemic and left the country's GDP growth at 6 per cent.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)