• PTI leaders record statements regarding May 9 events.
• Party leaders claim Imran never supported violent acts.
  
• Secretary general PTI says goal was to make country successful.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leaders Saturday released video statements, under oath, denying claims that they were instructed by their Chairman Imran Khan to attack state institutions or military installations on May 9.

The statements were recorded to prevent a “nefarious plan” aimed at releasing false statements against the PTI chairman in case they get arrested, tortured and blackmailed, The News reported.

In their individually recorded video speeches, PTI leaders, including Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan, clarified that the party and its chairman’s only goal was to make Pakistan a successful nation.

They declared that any other video statement, other than the one that was recorded, would be fake because, according to the new trend, PTI leaders were being abducted and the abductors were getting recorded statements of their choice under duress and coercion.

“Therefore, these video statements recorded under oath should be kept safe and presented before courts as proof,” they said.

Omar Ayub said: “In case of my ‘enforced disappearance’ or arrest, please keep this statement of mine on oath as proof that the PTI chairman never gave any instructions to harm any government or state institutions’ building.”

He claimed that PTI members were patriotic Pakistanis who desired the “rule of law” in Pakistan in order to see it thrive, and he added that Imran Khan had always counselled them to maintain peace since he frequently discussed Pakistan’s integrity.

Likewise, in his recorded video statement in connection with the May 9 incident, PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Ali Amin Gandapur said Imran Khan never ordered him to do any illegal activity.

“I swear. I have never been ordered by Khan to concoct a plot or do violence or similar acts against the Pakistan Army, police and other state organs. The aim of any of our sit-ins or protests was never to obstruct the appointment of the head of any institution.

“I am recording this statement under oath that Khan never ordered us to take any violent action or in any case attack military installations,” Gandapur testified.

PTI Secretary General Central Punjab Hammad Azhar also recorded a statement under oath that the PTI chairman never directed any violent protest in his presence. He denied participation in any violent protest.

PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Shaikh, who is a member of the PTI Core Committee, in his video statement under oath, categorically said: “I take oath with this holy Qur’an in my hand that Imran Khan, the leader of this nation, never incited us to attack private and public institutions.”

He went on to say: “I swear that whenever there was a possibility of confrontation like on May 25 or when we were heading towards the parliament, Khan instantly ordered his party men to go back to avoid a clash. We were never asked to be part of any conspiracy to prevent the appointment of the present army chief.”

PTI Karachi President Firdous Shamim Naqvi said he had been associated with the PTI since 1996, but his leader never talked about attacking and vandalising state institutions or inciting violence.

Similarly, PTI Additional Secretary General Ali Nawaz Awan, in his recorded statement, stated that the PTI chairman believed in the supremacy of law and the Constitution. He never supported violent acts which was evident from his lifelong struggle.

Adviser on International Media to PTI Chairman Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, in his video statement under oath, stated that Khan neither issued any order of violent protest in his presence nor took part in any such violent activities.

Brigadier (retd) Musaddiq Abbasi, who served as a federal adviser to PM Imran Khan on Accountability and Interior and also to the CM Punjab on Anti-Corruption and Public Prosecution, said Imran never instructed making frivolous cases against his political rivals and gave them due legal treatment in jail.