Karnataka to vote in LS polls on April 26 and May 7

In an article written from the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Khan alleged that Pakistan's powerful military leadership could make an attempt to eliminate him.

Serving a jail term in various cases of corruption, incitement to violence and matters of national security, Khan alleged in his piece written for the UK's Telegraph that all the charges levelled against him are politically motivated.

"All that is left for them now is to murder me," he wrote.

Khan wrote that Pakistan has become a "laughing stock" in front of the whole world after conducting flawed elections on February 8. He also mentioned that the 240 million people of the country are angry over the way their voices and support, broadly represented through the power of vote, has been ridiculed.

"The people have shown in no uncertain terms their rejection of state electoral machinations and of the oppression, incarceration and torture of not just the PTI leadership but also of its workers," he wrote.

"The military leadership has been subjected to overt criticism at a level unseen before in our history. The government is a laughing stock," he added.

Slamming Pakistan's military establishment, he stated specifically that the Army Chief General Asim Munir is doing everything to keep him out of politics.

"The establishment has done all they could against me. All that is left for them is to now murder me. I have stated publicly that if anything happens to me or my wife, the Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir will be responsible," he wrote.

"But I am not afraid because my faith is strong. I would prefer death over slavery," he added.

Khan said that the only way to get Pakistan out of the current crisis is "to restore the people's mandate and release all political prisoners including those being held for trial under military courts".

Khan's opinion piece has again established his strong and rigid opposition against the military establishment, especially against the current Army Chief General Asim Munir.

It is also a fact that the former PM was not in favor of the appointment of General Munir as the country's army chief and launched a long march from Lahore to Rawalpindi, smartly delaying it to assert political and public pressure while blocking Munir's appointment.

He has also blamed the previous military chief General (Retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for facilitating his government's opposition alliance, which led to his ouster through a Vote of No Confidence (VONC). Since then, Pakistan's political outlook has been in shambles with ongoing protests, rallies and campaigns being launched by PTI against the military establishment and the ruling governments.

Last May, the PTI workers stormed military installations in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi and other parts of the country, in protest against the arrest of their leader.

The authorities also launched a similar crackdown against the PTI workers and leaders, blocking their election campaigns during the February 2024 elections, paving the way for Shehbaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) to become the country's Prime Minister.

Khan is serving a jail term of three years in a corruption case and a 14-year term for the Toshakhana case besides an additional 10-year jail term for revealing state secrets.

(IANS)

During his stay on May 4 and 5, Jayashankar is scheduled to attend party programmes in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Sambalpur. 

Party sources said Jayashankar would attend intellectuals' meetings and other programmes. 

Party sources also revealed that national president JP Nadda will come to Odisha on May 5. He will meet State leaders and attend worker's meetings. He is also scheduled to attend a programme in Cuttack.  

Notably, Nadda visited Odisha recently. He addressed a huge gathering at Berhampur during her one-day stay. 

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"I said it before that the 'Shehzada' (prince) will be defeated from Wayanad and soon after the elections at Wayanad will be over, he will go in search of a second seat. His followers were claiming that he will fight from Amethi. But, it seems that he is scared of Amethi too. So now the 'prince' is trying to find an escape route from Raebareli," PM Modi said while addressing a rally at Burdwan in West Bengal.

"I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. She ran away to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha.. Today, I am also telling them not to be scared. Do not escape," he added.

Prime Minister Modi launched a scathing attack against Congress and other allies of the opposition INDIA bloc, accusing them of speaking about "vote-jihad" during the ongoing elections.

"Previously they practised 'vote-jihad' silently. Now they are publicly announcing it. Their allies like Trinamool Congress and the Left parties are remaining silent in support," said PM Modi.

He said that the only aim of Congress is to introduce religion-based reservation in India.

"As per the Indian Constitution, religion-based reservation is not permissible. But Congress is exactly trying to do that. They are planning to do this by reducing the reservation quota for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. I challenged them to give it in writing that they are not in favour of religion- based reservation but they have remained silent," he said.

He also asserted that it seems that Congress is in the mood to punish people from SC, ST and OBC backgrounds since they have overwhelmingly supported BJP in the last few elections.

(IANS)