Bajwa, others involved in ousting PTI govt, alleges Fawad

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Friday claimed that the 'establishment actually played a very active role in the ouster of PTI chief Imran Khan'.

During an interview with the BBC show HardTalk, the former information minister disagreed with host Stephen Sackur's statement about the military helping the PTI to come to power.

“It took 22 years for the PTI to come to power and I don’t think any military or any institution can support you for that long,” he added.

“We came into power, but yes, we were ousted by a conspiracy in which some of the army generals were involved and the establishment actually played a very active role in the ouster of Imran Khan,” Fawad said.

Sackur then asked him about a statement made by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum during a presser wherein Gen Nadeem said that the PTI chief had asked the military to play an unconstitutional role during the vote of no-confidence against him.

To this Fawad said the party’s view on this was “totally different”.

“We never said that. We only said that let’s not let a stable government go like this,” he claimed.

Read Gen Bajwa 'solely responsible' for prevailing political, economic crises: Imran

He then further alleged that “the last army chief was [also] actively involved in sending our government home and unfortunately this is what the fact is”.

“The current [army] leadership has just assumed the office and we are hoping there will be a change in the policy, but yes the previous army chief was not talking the truth when he said we asked [for their] help. We had only asked for their neutrality of the army,” Fawad maintained.

Pakistan pushed into political chaos

Sackur asked if the former interior minister along with his party were prepared to put their partisan interest and differences aside and pull together for the good of their nation, to which Fawad said the party is prepared to do so.

He furthered that Pakistan is a democratic country and democratic parties “do have their own programs”.

He added that the country was pushed into “political chaos” when Imran Khan was “removed from the office unconstitutionally”.

“Now people are standing on one side and the present ruling elite, that we call the imported government, is standing on the other side and that’s the primary problem in Pakistan,” said the former interior minister.

The host asked Fawad if it was responsible of PTI to call for massive street protests keeping in mind the current economic situation.

The PTI leader responded that the economic crisis that the country faces today was because of political uncertainty and that the “imported government has miserably failed to create certainty about their policies”.

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“They have no plan, they have no economic plan, they have no administrative plan. The economy is going down. Terrorism is back in Pakistan,” he listed.

When asked about the “economic problems” that the PTI government left behind, Fawad claimed that the statement was “not correct”, adding that Pakistan was in “shambles” when PTI took over in 2018.

“When we took over, Pakistan was in shambles and when we left, as per the economic survey of Pakistan released by this government… our economy was growing at the rate of 6%,” he added.

He furthered that the way the PTI government fought COVID-19 was “praised by BBC and all independent publications”. Fawad also said that the PTI government was “doing really well as far as the economy is concerned but the current turmoil has thrown everything out of the window”.

‘Cleanest government in 75 years’

Fawad maintained that the PTI chief gave Pakistan “one of the cleanest governments in 75 years" 

“Not a single corruption scandal can be attributed to the Cabinet or to Imran Khan,” he said.

He stated that the judiciary – the department that deals with rule of law – contributed to the drop in the corruption ranking of Pakistan.

He said that the PTI is facing “fake cases”, adding the evidence is “forged” and that the cases are “funny”.

Read Nawaz calls for aggressively dealing with cipher narrative

Respect for institutions

Fawad stated that the PTI has not turned against “anyone”, adding that the party has respect for national institutions.

“In Pakistan, the unelected institutions like the judiciary and the military exercised their powers beyond Constitution, which is known to everyone,” he added.

Cypher

When asked by Sackur about the PTI chief’s failure to present evidence regarding his “foreign conspiracy” claims, the PTI leader said that the PTI presented the cypher and then the party also wrote to the president of Pakistan for a judicial inquiry into that conspiracy.

"But our request in that regard was never entertained," he said. 

He further claimed that the PTI never wanted “war with the United States”.

Govt not ready to hold elections

The PTI leader said that the current government is not ready to hold elections.

"We can wait for elections, we have no problem but this government is not ready to hold elections even local body elections in a city like Islamabad," he stated.

He said, "elections are not the need of PTI but the need of Pakistan right now".