Islamabad: Imran Khan, a former prime minister of Pakistan, was cautioned by the military not to make "baseless allegations" after he once more claimed that a senior officer was planning to murder him.
The criticism delivered late on Monday showed how badly Khan's relationships with the powerful military have deteriorated. The military supported Khan's ascent to power in 2018 but withdrew its backing prior to a parliamentary vote of no confidence that led to his removal the following year.
In the midst of a severe economic and political crisis, Khan is putting pressure on Pakistan's coalition government to call early elections.
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At a rally over the weekend in Lahore, Khan made the same allegations that Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, a senior intelligence officer, was involved in an attempted murder last year, during which he was shot in the leg.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a branch of the military, released a statement in which it stated that "this false and malicious allegation is extremely unfortunate, deplorable, and unacceptable."
It said that over the past year, there had been a "consistent pattern" of insinuations and sensational propaganda directed at military and intelligence agency officials in order to further political goals.
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In Pakistan, where army chiefs have long been accused of meddling in domestic and foreign politics and hold significant sway over both, criticism of the military establishment is uncommon.
Khan also claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was a part of the assassination plot, and Sharif responded on Twitter.
He said that making accusations against Gen. Faisal Naseer and members of our intelligence agency without any supporting evidence was unacceptable and would not be tolerated.
According to the Pakistani government, a lone gunman who is currently in custody and who confessed in a video that was contentiously leaked to the media was responsible for the assassination attempt.
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Khan disputes those conclusions and maintains that authorities have rejected his attempts to submit a "first information report" (FIR) to the police that would have named the real offenders.
In a video statement made public on Tuesday, Khan reiterated his claims and claimed that "there is no reason for me to fabricate the facts."
The ISPR stated that it reserved the right to "take legal course of action against patently false and malafide statements and propaganda."
Since his removal, Khan has been charged with dozens of offences, a strategy that analysts say has been used by Pakistani governments to silence critics.
He will return to court on Tuesday. The sixth-largest military in the world, Pakistan's, wields excessive power over the country. Since the nation's independence in 1947, it has staged at least three coups and ruled for more than three decades.