Imran links 'crackdown' on PTI to 'unprecedented popularity'

Says life threat, party arrests and media clampdown all reflective of govt's fear of PTI sweeping polls

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has linked the 'threat' to his life and the recent crackdown on his party to his 'unprecedented popularity, claiming that those in power are hell-bent on avoiding electoral defeat.

In an interview with Times Radio, Imran said that he faces a threat to his life which has been confirmed by public statements made by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah himself.

PTI Chairman @ImranKhanPTI interview with Times Radio pic.twitter.com/Tc55u1Pvwc

— PTI (@PTIofficial) March 31, 2023

But while the government suspects the threat to be from "some foreign elements", the PTI chief said he "knows that it is from the government itself".

"There were three main people in the government that I believe were responsible for my assassination and I predicted that about six weeks before the attempt took place. They are still sitting in government, they are sabotaging the inquiry report because it was implicating them and I think that they are more threatened than ever," he said.

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"There was an intelligence agency general who was involved in this, I nominated him, the interior minister -- who recently gave a statement that it is either us or them or some stupid statement like that -- and then of course the prime minister. All of them have been involved in extra-judicial killings and there is a record about that," he added.

"Since my party has won 30 out of 37 by-elections in the last few months, they know that we are favourites to win the elections," Imran said his life was even "more under threat".

Blaming former chief of army staff Qamar Javed Bajwa for his ouster, Imran said that he coopted the "guys who are in power right now" in the hopes that the PTI's support would fizzle out.

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However, Imran claimed that his party has consistently won more support pushing his rivals to take extreme measures to keep him from returning to the office through elections.

"There are 140 cases against me right now which include blasphemy, sedition and 40 cases of terrorism," he stressed dismissing them all saying "nobody believes that I have broken the law because I have never broken the law in my life."

"In fact, my movement is called the movement of justice, for rule of law," he added.

"Whenever I go to trial courts, I get bail because there is nothing in the cases," he claimed.

He also rubbished allegations that his party had been engaged in violent activities saying that "a party that wants election does not want violence".

Imran also lamented the crackdown against his party leaders and workers -- including the party's missing social media head in Karachi Arshad Siddiqui -- as well as the "blackout in media" against the PTI.