Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan Sunday warned of an imminent unprecedented crackdown by the government on the media houses and journalists supporting him.
In a series of tweets, a day after addressing a public rally in Lahore, Imran expressed fears that if the government succeeded in suppressing journalists supporting his narrative, then the country might “be returning to the dark days of dictatorship when there was no independent media & no room for freedom of expression.”
Imran named about five anchors and columnist Ayaz Amir who, he said, suffered “threats, violent attacks and arrests” for supporting him. “In my mass public campaign across Pak from next week, I will take up issue of media freedom & freedom of expression,” he said. “If we allow these terror tactics, designed simply to target PTI & myself, to succeed, then we will be returning to the dark days of dictatorship when there was no independent media & no room for freedom of expression,” Imran Khan said. “Haqeeqi Azadi cannot be achieved without a free media & freedom of speech as guaranteed in our Constitution,” he said. Interestingly, Pakistan sank on the press freedom index in the three and a half years when Imran Khan was in power. In the final year of the Imran Khan government, Pakistan fell 12 points on the World Press Freedom index and was ranked below even Afghanistan, which is ruled by Taliban hardliners. A day earlier while addressing a rally at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore, Imran Khan had said his fight for ‘real freedom’ had entered its ‘final phase’ and shared his plan of holding country-wide anti-government rallies.
Imran said he had decided to “go to the people”, starting from Rawalpindi, followed by Karachi, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Attock, Abbottabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Jhelum, Gujrat, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Quetta.
“I am coming out and to the people as the fight for real independence has entered its decisive phase. My nation, be ready,” he told the people. He also announced the constitution of a new “Tiger Force”, claiming that it will work for “independence” as the people did before the partition. “I am telling my nation, be ready, you have to go door-to-door and inform the people of my message about independence. Tell them that they should not be afraid of anything.”
Imran claimed that the government would try to frighten the PTI supporters, but he told them that if their ‘captain’ was not afraid of anything, then neither should they be.
Imran said when he was in power, had established a Tiger Force to keep a check on the hoarding of edible goods and other items during the coronavirus pandemic, when strict lockdowns were in place. Reiterating that he only wanted to look after the country’s interests, Imran said he was not ‘anti-America’ and wished to have a friendly relationship with the United States. “I know America and the United Kingdom better than most of the Pakistanis […] I know their psychology; if you beg them, they will use you,” the ex-premier said.
The PTI chairman added that he has never bowed before anyone and neither will he bow down in the future.
The ousted prime minister said that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah freed the nation from the British slavery and refused to leave them in the slavery of Hindus. “He (Quaid) noted that Muslims have always lived as an independent nation […] he also clarified that the Muslims want a sovereign state,” the PTI chairperson said. Khan added that he also wanted a sovereign Pakistan and vowed to not beg to any foreign power. He noted that his political opponents had been maligning him for the last 26 years, but told them that respect was not earned through ‘money’.
