The age of martial law in Pakistan is now permanently over”: Imran Khan

Islamabad, Pakistan Tehrik-i- Insaf PTI Chairman Imran Khan says, “The age of martial law in Pakistan is now permanently over.”

“The army, realizes that people will not accept this anymore,” Imran told Indian NDTV correspondent Barkha Dutt Wednesday in Islamabad.

Transcript: NDTV: You have every reason to smile today, don’t you?

Imran: Uh, yes. Not just because my party is…

NDTV: on the ascendant, yeah

Imran:… and is now number one party and has biggest public support but because I think our democracy has evolved. And these entire crises, as you just mentioned in your opening remarks, what has come out is that the army is no longer prepared to come out in the open.

NDTV: The age of the coup is over in a sense.

Imran: The age of martial law is over.

NDTV: It’s over, yeah.

Imran: …because memo gate scandal is such a shameful scandal, that if ever the army would have intervened, it would have been then. Because, it’s effectively a president asking the United States, to come and help him get rid of the Army hierarchy so that he could serve them better. That’s in effect the memo gate and normally, the army would have…that would have been enough to take over. I mean, as it is, there is public outrage against that and so you would’ve had the public backing. But, Pakistan has moved on and I think that the army realizes now that people are not going to accept military takeovers anymore. At the same time, Supreme Court, I mean Supreme Court has taken a stand. Finally, Supreme Court, for first time in Pakistan you’re seeing the court taking on the powerful. Normally, Supreme Court has been a part of the executive and taken orders from the government literally. First time, Supreme Court is challenging most powerful people in this country and challenging the corruption cases. And so, we have a vibrant media which is a third pillar and we have a very politically aware public.

NDTV: But, here is the catch in your argument. The catch is, supporters, sympathizers of this government, and many liberal voices in Pakistan are saying that this is a test case for democracy, that an elected government should be allowed to complete its tenure, and why is the opposition pushing for an early election?

Imran: Well, it would….in normal circumstances I would agree. But now, what is this government trying to do? It’s trying to demolish an independent Supreme Court. What is…are early elections going to destroy a democracy? Or if independent judiciary is destroyed, would that destroy a democracy? Pakistan, as I said, has moved on. First time we’ve had an independent Supreme Court. Now, if this government takes on the Supreme Court just so, then it can protect Asif Zardari’s corruption of billions of dollars. I’m afraid, that if you stand…if people stand by the judiciary and it wins, then our democracy wins. If our judiciary loses, our democracy loses.

NDTV: What do you say to those voices in your country who are suggesting that in some ways, the judiciary and the military in this country are on the same side in this debate?

Imran: I don’t know if there is any indication of that but all I know is that Supreme Court has been very lenient with this government. I mean this…the day NRO was cut down, an NRO brokered by the Bush administration which Condoleezza Rice writes in her book, that she helped waive off all corruption cases of Benazir and 8000 people, corruption cases of over a trillion rupees, were waived off. Would they do that in their own countries?

NDTV: I want to ask you, there are those who say Imran Khan’s been backed by Pakistan army, I read this all the time in Pakistani media.

Imran: Well, this is what all politicians are petrified of. Because they don’t know what’s happened, how come this tsunami has suddenly built up? But if the army has now helped us, then surely it must be manipulating the Pew polls which are American opinion polls where Tehreek-e-Insaaf has been number one for now six months. You Gov polls in England; there we’ve been number one. All polls which are conducted in Pakistan, we’re number one party now. So surely, they must be manipulating that. And then, a quarter of million people turn up in Lahore, and a quarter of a million in Karachi. General Musharraf when he was head of army, he couldn’t pull a miniscule crowd compared to that. Forget passion in crowd, aren’t they overestimating the army?