Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who previously held the United States responsible for his removal from power in April 2022, has reportedly reached out to a US lawmaker seeking intervention amidst a government crackdown on his party’s members.
The information comes from leaked audio circulating on social media, purportedly featuring a conversation between Imran Khan and US lawmaker Maxine Moore Waters. Maxine Moore Waters is a Congresswoman from California. In the audio, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party can be heard urging the US lawmaker to raise her voice against “human rights violations” taking place in Pakistan.
In this audio, Imran Khan blamed the Pakistan army for toppling his government which said was the most stable government in Pakistan in the last 17 years. He asked the Congresswoman to verify his claims on her own if she wants. Imran Khan said that Pakistan is going through a crisis like never before and urged the US lawmaker to make a statement on the situation of human rights in Pakistan.
After absolutely not… Now absolutely yes … #imranKhanPTI seeking #American @USCongress for him… Your analysis with decent comments welcome pic.twitter.com/kmvmKoL2Md
— Mateen Haider (@haider_mateen) May 20, 2023
The crackdown on PTI began shortly after protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and set fire to a corps commander’s residence in Lahore. These events occurred following Imran Khan’s dramatic arrest on May 9 in connection with a corruption case. His arrest came one day after the military accused him of making unfounded allegations against a senior officer of the intelligence agency, ISI. Imran Khan had claimed that Faisal Naseer, also known as ‘Dirty Harry,’ was involved in previous assassination attempts against him and was responsible for the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif.
