Rana Sanaullah’s remarks against Khan during a TV interview trigger a sharp reaction from the opposition imran khan party.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Former Prime Minister imran khan party has slammed “incendiary remarks” by the country’s home minister against his political rival.
In an interview on Sunday with a local news channel, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, the second-most powerful official in the government, issued what many say are not-so-veiled threats to Khan, 72, who since his removal from power last year has been demanding immediate elections.
“He [Khan] has brought the nation’s politics to a point where only one of us can exist,” Sanaullah said.
“When we feel our existence is being threatened, we will go to a point where we will not bother whether a move is democratic or not,” he added.
Calling Khan an “enemy” who is “incurable”, the minister said there will be “no normalcy or political stability” in the country so long as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief “exists”.
“He accuses us of plotting to kill him, and if he thinks we want to kill him, obviously he wants to kill us as well,” he said.
Khan’s PTI slammed the federal minister’s comments.
“A fight to the death? This is not an ordinary person talking but Pakistan’s interior minister. In any other country, he would have been made to resign,” party leader Taimur Jhagra told Al Jazeera.
“No one from the government has contradicted [the remarks]. No one has apologised. This exposes their real political values, and in a sad way, is also an honest admission of how afraid they are of Imran Khan.”
In a news conference on Sunday, senior PTI member Fawad Chaudhry asked if the minister was a “goon”.
