Imran Khan Has Won Pakistan Elections from Jail, Army Wants to Kill Him Now, Says Sister | Exclusive

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won the country’s general elections with two-third majority but we fear for his safety as the army wants to kill him, the former cricket star-turned-Islamist politician’s family told News18 in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Independent candidates backed by an imprisoned Khan, who was disqualified from running in Thursday’s election because of criminal convictions, were leading in the vote count on Friday, a surprisingly strong showing given assertions by Khan’s supporters and a national rights body that the balloting was manipulated to favour former prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif.

That scrambled the plans of Sharif — and the security establishment backing him — forcing him to announce plans on Friday to try to form a coalition government.

“PTI has won the elections with two-third majority. We have the stamped results in hand… We fear for his (Imran Khan’s) life and the army wants to kill him,” his sister Aleema Khan told News18.

Imran Khan’s party’s candidates were forced to run as independents after they were barred from using the party symbol — a cricket bat — to help illiterate voters find them on ballots.

Despite those setbacks — and with most of the 266 National Assembly constituencies announced by the election oversight body — candidates backed by Khan’s PTI had won 99 seats. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party had 71 seats. The election was postponed in one constituency because of the killing of one of the candidates. However, with a third major party in the mix, nobody could declare outright victory.

According to Aleema, in some cases, Imran Khan-backed candidates ‘lost’ despite a margin of 80,000 votes over the nearest rival.

“It was daylight robbery and their votes were stolen. Nawaz Sharif’s victory is limited only to 50-60 seats which is also because of rigging. One of our candidates has taken a stay order from the Lahore High Court, but other candidates may also go to court to appeal,” she said.

Asked if the family was able to meet Khan, who is currently lodged in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Aleema said: “We didn’t meet Imran, but we will meet him tomorrow. He was expecting rigging (in elections). People voted only for Imran on different symbols, which is remarkable.”

“We fear for his life. He has faced two assassination attempts and we know who did it. Now this is more serious after his victory from jail. Earlier, Imran Khan told me ‘first, they took my test team out, after that 20:20, and now I am playing with under-16’.”

Votes are still being counted in Pakistan after Thursday’s general election which was marred by allegations of rigging, sporadic violence and a countrywide mobile phone shutdown. There were dozens of parties in the fray but the main contest was among Khan’s PTI, whose candidates are running as independents, former three-time premier Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Bilawal Zardari Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).