Islamabad, Pakistan Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan says everyone in Pakistan has condemned the attacks on military installations during the deadly protests following his arrest last week.
“Who does not condemn the attack on the Lahore Corps Commander House? Tell me one person in Pakistan who doesn’t,” he said at a news conference at his residence in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday.
On May 9, Khan was dramatically arrested on corruption charges while appearing in court in the capital, Islamabad. Two days later, the Supreme Court declared his arrest illegal and another court in Islamabad ordered his release on May 12.
Shortly after Khan was arrested, a mob of his alleged supporters stormed and set fire to the residence of a top military commander in Lahore.
Several other army installations were also attacked across the country as angry Khan supporters accused the powerful army of orchestrating his arrest.
But Khan denied on Thursday that his supporters were behind the arson attack, alleging a plot to incriminate him and his Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over the incident.
“Burning down that old building, it’s a deliberate ploy to blame us,” said the 70-year-old opposition leader. “In 27 years [of his political career], did I ever ask to proceed with fires and riots? I have always talked about peaceful protests within the law and the constitution.”
Khan repeated the statement on Friday while appearing before an anti-terrorism court in Lahore, which granted him protection from arrest for vandalism at the residence of the military commander.
“There is not a Pakistani who will not condemn this attack,” he told reporters in court.
Khan’s muted criticism of the military infrastructure attacks came after more than a dozen top PTI leaders left the party over the May 9 violence and subsequent government crackdown, which left at least 10 people dead and more than 4,000 arrested.
Pakistani authorities said they will try suspects who attacked the military installations under the draconian army law, a decision condemned by human rights groups who say such trials are never fair.
Mahmood Moulvi, a senior PTI leader from the southern city of Karachi and a former parliamentarian, told Al Jazeera there was only “one reason” why he decided to leave Khan’s party.
“It happens nowhere in the world that a nation fights against its own army. My decision to quit was simply because we shouldn’t be fighting our own institutions, especially the one where we go for help every time there is an emergency,” he told Al Jazeera.
Moulvi said there was an unfortunate trend in Pakistan where every political party changed its tone when pushed out of power.
“This is our history. When a political party, be it PTI or any other, is in power, they say that the establishment is the best. But as soon as they’re out, they start criticizing them. While the military should not be part of such politics, these parties often drag it along,” he told Al Jazeera.
In response, Taimur Khan Jhagra, a former PTI minister in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, claimed that his party members were forced to quit.
“This is an old part of Pakistani politics. Some have backbone, some may have no character, some will be true fair-weather friends. But this kind of political engineering can break weaker parties. It won’t break the PTI where Khan has a direct relationship with his people. The PTI will emerge stronger, but the damage to democracy will take time to heal, a lot of time,” he told Al Jazeera.
At his press conference on Thursday, Khan spoke in a conciliatory tone as political tensions gripped the nuclear-armed country.
“Who fights against his own army? When someone fights [their] army, the country will prove to be the only loser,” he said. “My fight is not with them [army]. They’re mad at me, and I still don’t know why.”
He also tweeted his condolences to colleagues who left his party.
My condolences go out to all those who have been pressured to leave the party. And I commend and salute all senior members who resist the extreme pressure to leave the party,” he posted.
Meanwhile, a tense calm reigns at Khan’s residence in the Zaman Park area of Lahore, where dozens of security forces have been deployed as authorities plan to search his residence for suspects behind the attacks on military installations.