Former prime minister Imran Khan has said that he postponed the PTI’s August 22 rally due to concerns over potential unrest.

“I was informed that it was an issue of Finality of Prophethood and religious parties were protesting, so there was a fear of unrest spreading,” he told reporters at Adiala Jail on Friday. “As a result, I called in Azam Swati and Barrister Gohar Khan and instructed them to postpone the rally.”

The PTI postponed its Islamabad rally on Thursday, citing the government’s “conspiracy to spread chaos”. The party changed its plans at the eleventh hour, prompting ire from supporters and some party leaders.

The Islamabad district administration announced a holiday in government and private schools on Thursday, sealing the red zone, after the party’s decision to stage rally despite not giving the NOC. Metro bus service in the twin cities had also been suspended.

The former prime minister warned against any an obstruction on September 8’s rally, saying that the government would be responsible “if anything happened.”

Khan expressed concerns that the government might try to create a new “May 9” incident by cracking down on a potential PTI protest rally. He stated that if they had been allowed to hold the rally, there was a “fear that a new May 9 might be created and put around the neck of PTI.”

He pointed out that the judicial inquiry into the previous May 9 incident has still not been carried out. “Even the judicial inquiry into the previous May 9 has not been conducted yet, and now if you have given permission and tried to stop the rally tomorrow, the responsibility will be of the government. Now it is a question of the credibility of the judiciary.”

The PTI founder went on to add that it was not a military or a secret international issue, but rather a matter of democracy.

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“If the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission report had been implemented, Pakistan would have had democracy today,” he said and argued that open trials would benefit the country in the same way as implementing the report, which could have “prevented the imposition of three martial laws and the current de facto martial law.”

Khan added that May 9 was an “attack on democracy” and he was demanding a commission in order to prevent such mistakes from happening again in the future.

When a journalist asked about a late-night message he had sent to Azam Swati and how he got the phone, Khan smiled and said: “Let’s leave that answer.”