LAHORE: Seeing the es­­tablishment’s hand behind Punjab Chief Minister Par­vez Elahi’s confident statements about not taking a fresh confidence vote, PTI chief Imran Khan alleged on Friday that the military still didn’t seem to be neutral on the vote of confidence issue.

During an informal talk with a group of court reporters, Mr Khan accused the military of political enginee­ring against his party, claiming that PTI lawmakers were being pressured to skip the trust vote proceedings.

So far, three legislators had informed him that they had been approached for the purpose, he claimed. He also claimed the “neutrals” — a euphemism he uses for the military — were trying to install the PPP in Punjab.

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Commenting on Elahi’s advice to him and the rest of the PTI to ‘be careful’ when talking about former army chief retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Mr Khan said: “He has his stance about Gen Bajwa and we have our position.”

The PTI chief claimed he was not fighting the establishment, but struggling for the “sake of justice”.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2023