Like 1997, PML-N again ‘threatening’ CJP: Imran

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) is “threatening” the chief justice of Pakistan in the same way it “attacked” the top court in 1997.

“As the PML-N did in 1997 by storming SC to attack [the then] CJ Sajjad Ali Shah hearing a contempt petition against Nawaz Sharif, today the PML-N is again threatening the SC and the CJP because they are petrified of elections,” he said in a tweet on Friday.

His statement came after the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by Attorney General Pakistan Mansoor Awan for the formation of a full court bench as it continued hearing the PTI petition against delay in elections of the Punjab Assembly.

CJP Umar Ata Bandial said that neither the law nor rules talked about the composition of a full court, adding that they would not “go back” to the start as the matter was being heard since Monday.

The hearing continued after two judges – Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail – recused themselves from the five-member bench.
Addressing the common citizen in his tweets, the PTI chairman urged the people to come out in protest for the sake of democracy and the rule of law in the country.

“I want people of Pakistan to be ready to come out on streets if need be to save Rule of Law, the Constitution and democracy. We will be talking to all those political parties who are prepared to stand up against this conspiracy,” the PTI chief said.

He also appealed to the lawyers’ community to again “take the lead as they did in 2007 lawyers’ movement to protect Pakistan's Constitution and the rule of law”.

Separately in an interview with Times Radio, Imran linked the “threat” to his life and the recent crackdown on his party to his “unprecedented popularity”, claiming that those who were in power were hell-bent on avoiding electoral defeat.

The PTI chief said that he faced a threat to his life which had been confirmed by public statement made by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah himself.

But while the government suspected 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.

"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.