On a day that witnessed frenzied political activity, Pakistan’s security czar Rana Sanullah said that PTI chief Imran Khan concocted the cipher-conspiracy narrative to protect his government ahead of its impending ouster in the vote of no confidence.

The interior minister’s press conference at PID Islamabad started shortly after the 95-minute media talk by the military spokesperson Lieutenant General Babar Ikfikhar. Inter-Services Intelligence DG Lt General Nadeem Anjum was part of the press conference - the first time in Pakistan’s history that the country’s spy chief addressed the media.

“Today, Imran Khan’s true face has been exposed,” said Sanaullah. He was following up on the earlier press conference, in which the military spokesperson and the spy chief said that Imran had offered an indefinite extension to the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, in return for a favourable outcome in the vote of no confidence against him.

“Imran used terms like Mir Jafar, Mir Sadiq, neutral, traitor and animal,” said Sanaullah, referring to many public utterances in which Imran insinuated that the army was supporting political parties.

“If state institutions work for him, it is okay. Otherwise, they are traitors,” he continued, which many consider an allusion to oft-repeated claim that the military was instrumental in Imran’s election in 2018

Arshad Sharif’s murder

The interior minister said that the threat alert about Arshad Sharif’s assassination was manufactured to rattle the journalist. “We will investigate it.”

Earlier, the military spokesperson and the spy chief had said that the KP government did not share the source of the threat with them.

He said that Sharif was sent to Kenya from the UAE. He added that there was evidence which would be shared soon. “You will be provide a verified report regarding the farm house,” he said about Sharif’s purtported destination en route which he was shot dead in what the Kenyan police have claimed to be a case of mistaken identity.

“Evidence is pointing in the direction of Imran Khan, Salman Iqbal,” said Sanaullah. Salman Iqbal is the CEO of the ARY Group. Sanaullah was suggesting that the ‘manufactured’ threat alert was issued to compel Sharif to leave Pakistan, with his ticket and travel managed on Iqbal’s instructions.

Islamabad protest

The PML-N leader warned against violence in the PTI’s protest march to Islamabad, which is scheduled for Friday. A day earlier, PTI’s Faisal Vawda said in a press conference that the march would result in blood letting. He also claimed to have explosive information regarding journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder, which he said was premeditated.

He said that the security situation had been assessed ahead of the protest. The PTI has sought permission for protests in sectors H-9 and G-9 of Islamabad. “If it is peaceful, we won’t have any problems.”

He added that if protesters would not be allowed to enter Islamabad if the situation turned violent.

He added that a four-kilometre area around the high-security Red Zone would be cordoned off, while the army and Rangers have been summoned to the capital under Section 254 (in aid of civil power) of the PPC.