Jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan would not confront the military or army chief Asim Munir if freed, one of his closest aides told Reuters, portraying Munir as able to extend a ‘healing hand’ after a legal breakthrough this week.
The comments came after Pakistan’s top court ordered Khan to be moved to hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, Khan was transferred to a hospital in Islamabad earlier today for medical examination, his party said, fulfilling a long-standing demand by supporters who say his health has deteriorated during more than three years in prison.
“Former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been shifted from Adiala Jail to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad following Supreme Court order,” Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said in a text message to journalists.
In an interview on Wednesday, Khan aide Zulfikar Bukhari, a PTI spokesperson, sent one of the strongest signals so far that the party was willing to reconcile with the military, potentially easing one of the tensest stand-offs in recent Pakistani political history, even as doubts remained whether Khan himself shared that wish.
“If Imran Khan was released tomorrow, hypothetically, he wouldn’t do anything that would effectively damage the country,” Bukhari said, describing him as ‘magnanimous’.
“That doesn’t mean you go loggerheads with the establishment, with the military leader,” he said.
“You control your own hurt. You curb your own pain. You swallow it for the betterment of your country.”
The government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Bukhari’s remarks.
The military has previously said it does not interfere in politics, while the government says Khan’s cases are matters for the courts.
Bukhari called the ruling a ‘new ray of hope’ and said PTI would comply with the court’s instruction that its workers and leaders not gather outside the hospital.
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