Rumi made these remarks during an appearance on journalist Arifa Noor's show on Dawn News on Friday, where he said that Imran Khan had put the military on the back-foot, which considerably worried them and led to the unprecedented press conference by the Director Generals of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
He said that the middle and upper middle class was not just fully backing Imran Khan, but had also completely absorbed the narrative of the US-led 'regime change conspiracy' that Khan was spinning. "You must have talked to so many people yourself who believe that a grave injustice was committed against Imran Khan, and that the ruling coalition of 'thieves and robbers' removed an 'honest, sincere' leader like Khan," he told Arifa.
Furthermore, Imran Khan had successfully 'manipulated' the public opinion to believe that the current government was a 'compromised' and 'boot-polish government', due to which every action taken by them seems desperate and defensive.
"The coalition government had no clarity about how they wanted to proceed from day one, or what narrative to sell to the public to justify their acquisition of power through the vote of no confidence," he said, adding that all the legal cases piled against him paled in comparison to the wave of middle class public support he enjoyed.