Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari taking a dig at former Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the change won’t come by attacking military installations.
Bilawal was speaking to Al Jazeera exclusively from Baghdad, where he will inaugurate the new Pakistan embassy.
“Mr Khan’s supporters might hold this view it is not based in reality or fact as far as the role of the Army in Pakistan’s politics well of course no one can hide the fact that we have been…sort of more than half of our history been covered by the military rule,” he said.
He said that Pakistan People’s Party has challenged each and every single dictatorship in Pakistan’s history. “The last dictatorship we had was Mr [Pervez] Musharraf’s dictatorship.”
“Mr Khan’s political history is this that he has supported every dictator and he supported every autocrat in Pakistan’s history even Mr Khan’s rise to power in 2018 – it’s a well-documented fact a proven and established fact that he was brought into power through a rigged election in collaboration with some former officers of the Pakistan Army,” he claimed.
He believes that the PTI chairman’s problem with the Pakistan army began in April last year when the establishment decided that they would not be involved in politics and would not take sides.
“Mr Khan’s issue with the Army in Pakistan is not that they’re not involved in politics his problem with the Pakistani army is they’re not getting involved to support him,” he said.
As far as the Army’s popularity as an institution is concerned PTI supporters may be upset with them, Bilawal said. “They blame Pakistan Army for not violating the Constitution to support Mr Khan.”
Majority of Pakistani citizens want the Pakistan Army to remain apolitical and not intervene in the politics of the country and the majority of the people of Pakistan are deeply offended by the actions that took place on May 9th where Mr Khan encouraged his supporters to attack the Army installations such as the Corps Commander house in Lahore, the General headquarters in Rawalpindi and many other military installations. “Such an attack has never taken place in the history of the country nor by any political party.”
“Now those who were involved in these attacks on our military installations must face the consequences of the law of the land,” he added.
Moreover, he believes that the only person to blame for Mr Khan’s downfall is himself. “I’m sure that history will prove that.”