On July 2, Imran Khan gave an exclusive interview to renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan where he answered questions about media freedom, the arrest and dismantling of his party the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and how his arrest differs from PML-N head and also former PM Nawaz Sharif. Here are some key quotes:
Watch the full interview below:
- We do not have rule of law which is what what's happening now is might is right. There is undeclared Martial Law in Pakistan then there is darkness ahead. We are standing on the edge of the darkness.
- [Upon receiving the cipher] This is 6 March 22 which said that the American official Undersecretary of State Donald Lu told the Ambassador in an official meeting, that unless you get rid of Imran Khan in a vote of no-confidence, there'll be consequences. And then the vote of no-confidence takes place the next day and within a week my government is gone.
- All I want the US to do is their professed aims of so called Western values of democracy, rule of law, human rights, They shouldn't worry about what is happening to me. They should worry about 250 million people that the whole democratic structure is being wound up. And as I said, we have an undeclared martial law.
- When I was abducted from within the High Court, abduction, and the way that they took me as a part of some terrorist... We equated it to what Hitler did after 1933 burning of the German parliament, he cracked down on the communists and wiped them out. This is what's happening now. how could a few cases of arson be made a reason for five or 10,000 of our workers in jail.
- The only way the leadership can come out of jail if they renounced being part of my party. So it's never happened to this country before. Women have never been put in jail. The entire media has been muzzled.
- In Pakistan, Mehdi, the military has directly or indirectly ruled Pakistan for seventy years, three times martial law, and then the other times through it because they're entrenched. And so whoever does politics has to work with them.
- I worked with the military. I mean, military means with the army chief. So I worked pretty well with him. The main problem was, you see my whole thing is rule of law. I started my movemnet for justice 27 years ago, wanting to bring the powerful Mafias, the political mafia under the law. This is where the problem became, you know, he didn't think corruption was that big a thing.
- The only time that I found out about a journalist being picked up and disappeared was a guy called Matiullah Jan. That next year I got him back. The problems we had at the tail end of the war on terror.
- The establishment was very worried about any criticism about it. So they were responsible for a few guys who were picked up, but this is nothing compared to what's going on.
- [On muzzling the media when it came to mentioning Nawaz Sharif] Nawaz Sharif was convicted by the Supreme Court. He then faked his illness and somehow managed to bring out these tests which said he was about to die. Then his brother gave an affidavit that he's just going two weeks for treatment to come back, a convict.
- I shouldn’t have actually put a weak coalition government you know, I should not have taken power. I should have gone for elections again.
- This hybrid system cannot work. If you are an elected prime minister, you must have the authority to implement your reforms. It cannot work that you have the responsibility because you're elected, but the authority is shared. And the Army Chief has a veto power. This sort of system is doomed to failure.
Watch the full interview below: