Pak's ex-army chief Bajwa 'changed' after getting extension: Imran Khan

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has claimed that the country’s ex-army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa “changed” after getting an extension in 2019 and “compromised” with the Sharifs – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif and current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

According to a report in The News International, Khan made these comments in an interview with a private news channel on Saturday (January 21).

“General Bajwa changed after the extension and compromised with the Sharifs. He decided, at that time, to give them the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO),” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Khan said.

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Khan also reiterated that Bajwa hired Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, to topple his government.

“They hired Hussain Haqqani through the Foreign Office and we didn’t know. They met Haqqani in Dubai and hired him in September 2021,” the cricketer-turned-politician said.

As per the report, Khan also said that Haqqani lobbied against him in the US and promoted General (retd) Bajwa.

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Khan, who quit as Pakistan’s Prime Minister last year after a no-confidence motion, linked the alleged cipher by US diplomat Donald Lu – which he claimed was part of a conspiracy to topple his government – was the result of the lobbying in the US, the report added.

“Gen Bajwa would repeatedly tell us to focus on the economy and forget about accountability,” Khan said.

On the attempted assassination bid on him, Khan said he knew that PM Shehbaz, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior officer had planned the attack. “I knew that they plotted to attack me,” he alleged, the report said.

In November last year, Khan was injured after an unidentified gunman opened fire on the container-mounted truck carrying him during his protest march in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The incident occurred near Allahwala Chowk of Wazirabad town of Punjab when Khan was leading the protest march. The 70-year-old Khan was hit in the right leg.