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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, in a statement communicated via his family after a meeting on Oct. 10, has urged his supporters not to give up and continue demanding free and fair elections in the country.
“Do not give up,” he said in a message posted on his official X, formerly Twitter, account. “This time of trial will end because Allah says that ‘with every difficulty there is ease.’ Keep raising your voice against this unelected predatory group and their facilitators at every forum and keep demanding a fair and transparent election in the country,” he added.
Predicting that the people of Pakistan would come out in large numbers to vote the PTI into power during general elections, he claimed that no “matter how much these [other political parties] people cheat,” they would be defeated.
Referring to his incarceration at Attock Jail, Khan claimed the first few days were “particularly challenging,” alleging he was not provided a bed. “But with time I have adjusted well to the prison conditions,” he said, adding that his time in prison had made him “stronger and fitter; spiritually, mentally and physically.”
Claiming he had used his time in prison to study and research the holy Quran as well as other books, he said this had strengthened his faith. “I was also able to introspect the last few years of my political life,” he said, emphasizing that he would not back down from his demand of ‘Haqiqi Azadi’ regardless of what prison or conditions he were kept in.
“To those suggesting that I leave the country, know that I will live and die with Pakistan, and I will not leave my land to go anywhere,” he added.
Referring to the cipher case as “bogus,” he claimed it was aimed at protect former Army chief Gen. (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu. “I was the elected prime minister of the country. Treason was committed against me and my government by General Bajwa,” he claimed, lamenting that instead of investigating this “foreign conspiracy,” a case had been filed against him for “informing” the public of the alleged plot.
In his message, the PTI chief also claimed he was “pained” by the suffering of PTI workers who were “illegally imprisoned” in the aftermath of the May 9 riots. Claiming they are kept detained “by a few people who abuse their power to satisfy their egos,” he urged the judiciary to “provide justice and order the immediate release of our workers.”
Khan was arrested on Aug. 5 after being found guilty of “corrupt practices” by a trial court in the Toshakhana case and detained at Attock Jail. While the Islamabad High Court subsequently suspended his sentence—but not his conviction—he remains incarcerated as an under-trial prisoner at Adiala Jail in the cipher case, which concerns his alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act in “losing” a secret document he had in his custody. Since the May 9 riots, several members of his party have announced they are quitting politics, while dozens of workers remain incarcerated over their alleged role in the violence that saw civil and military assets ransacked and set on fire.