PTI chief Imran Khan has accused former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa of seeking good relations with India for the sake of an extension in his service.
“He [Bajwa] had begun lobbying with the US long ago and wanted the Americans to endorse his extension. For this purpose, Bajwa also wanted good relations with India and didn’t care about Kashmiris,” Khan said during an interview with anchorperson Maria Memon on ARY News that was aired on Sunday.
In the recent past, Khan has been accusing the then-army chief Gen Bajwa of conspiring with his political opponents to remove him from office in April last year. He has also claimed that the military under Bajwa did not give him enough room while he was governing and they were calling the shots. But the military has denied this.
The former premier was responding to a query pertaining to Khan’s extension offer to the former army chief—a month before the end of his tenure. The offer was made with a plan to have elections under Bajwa.
He responded by saying that twice he offered an extension to Bajwa. He accused the former army chief of getting any extension by forcing it with “full pressure”.
Khan added that the ex-COAS lied about not seeking any extension. The former premier claimed that his predecessor Shehbaz Sharif had also offered an extension to Bajwa, however, it was later found that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif “did not agree with it”.\
Then he mentioned the claims about ties with India. “If you had invited [Indian PM] Modi then you ended the Kashmiris [issue],” he added.
“So, my reading is that Bajwa had no ideology,” Khan said, adding that he was given briefings and presentations on the corruption of Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari by the previous intelligence heads.
“They had even more information than that available to the public … but he was ready to give these people NRO. The thing is how can you give NRO to these thieves when you have a sense of morality or ideology?
“Shehbaz Sharif was to be convicted, but they saved him and brought him to the top. If you don’t have the sense that you’re giving NRO to big thieves and selling Kashmiris … then this means you have no ideology,” Khan added.
Khan also responded to a query pertaining to reports that his call for a “long march” blocked PM Shehbaz’s announcement for early elections. The former premier in his reply accused Bajwa of lying.
“I announced on May 1 that I will announce a long march on May 20. Weren’t 20 days enough for any negotiation? But I still gave them more time but they did not give any indication.”
He accused the ruling alliance of having ill intentions as they “did not give any date” despite giving time to the government.
He reiterated that the military kept lying to him, adding that one year ago before his government ended a “Middle Eastern country head” told him that Bajwa has turned against him.
Former PM Khan claimed that the government had not yet formally reached out to his party for a dialogue.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court gave all the major political parties a week to develop a consensus on the date for polls to the provincial and national assemblies. But the ruling parties rejected the apex court order, prompting the PPP and Jamaat-e-Islami to convince parties to have a dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Khan said that he had given the mandate for talks with the government to PTI Central Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
“No one from the PDM has formally approached us yet. I fear they are using these negotiations to delay elections. They are just buying time so that elections can be delayed beyond October,” the PTI chief said.
He added that the PTI was adamant that elections in Punjab should be held as per the Supreme Court’s order, which fixed May 14 as the date.
“Talks can be held if they have a proposal on joint elections. If they give an SC-endorsed proposal on joint and immediate polls — by dissolving their governments in May — only then we can talk. But if they are leaving it open-ended, then it is nothing but a trap,” he said.
