Islamabad: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday asked Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan to keep his mouth shut if he wants to reduce political tension in the country.
“I think the PTI founder wants to increase the tension,” he said in an exclusive interview with the minister after a controversial social media post shared by X-former Khan’s official Twitter account.
“Every Pakistani should study the Hamood ur Rahman panel report and know who is the real traitor, General Yahya Khan or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” an article in X attributed to the former prime minister.
Asif said that the former prime minister, who has been incarcerated in Adiala Jail since August 2023, is seeking retrial on May 9.
Commenting on the video in question, the minister said that an attempt was made to pull down tweets related to the former president of Bangladesh.
“Gauhar [Khan’s] lawyer said the social media group did not seek permission before tweeting,” he said, adding that it was the first time the party had to withdraw a post on its social media account.
Khawaja Asif revealed that the Bangladeshi politician had a different opinion about the history and conflict of East Pakistan.
“Now you want to increase the tension by increasing the tragedy in East Pakistan,” he accused Khan and his party.
The minister said that the former prime minister punished everyone who did him good, be it in politics or sports.
“General [Qamar Javed] Bajwa’s father is General Faiz [Hamid]’s uncle, and now he is throwing all the rubbish at them,” Asif commented on the dynamics of his relationship with the ex-soldier during his rule.
Meanwhile, the cyber crime cell of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday decided to take action against Khan over his controversial tweets on social media.
The anti-crime agency came to Adiala jail late on Thursday to investigate, but Khan was denied a meeting.
According to sources in Adiala Jail, the former chief minister has refused to participate in the FIA investigation related to his controversial social media post.
According to sources, Khan refused to answer questions from the FIA team.
PTI chief Barrister Gohar, on the other hand, said he had nothing to do with Khan as he had not seen any of the articles uploaded on the account.
Gohar also defended the tweet, saying it was taken out of context.
“When we compare it to 1971, the context and comparison is in a political context, not the other way around – nothing about the army,” the PTI chief said.
