Will not compromise with govt, says former Pak PM Imran Khan as he completes 400 days in jail

Lahore: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday completed 400 days in prison, pledging that he is ready to spend his whole life in jail but will not compromise on his struggle for “Haqiqi Azadi (real freedom).”

The 71-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held a rally in Islamabad Sunday to press for his release from jail.

Khan was arrested on August 5 last year after his conviction in the first Toshakhana corruption case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Since then, he has been in jail in different cases.

The government ministers say Khan’s freedom is linked with his unconditional apology for the riots in which the PTI workers allegedly attacked state and military

installations. Khan, however, demands the setting up of a judicial commission for a probe into the May 9 violence.

“Today, Imran Khan completed 400 days in jail, but the powers that be couldn’t break his resolve for Haqiqi Azadi. The whole nation

is standing behind him and he will soon come out of jail,” PTI’s senior leader Asghar Gujjar said on Sunday.

Gujjar told PTI that today’s landmark rally in Islamabad will be an eye-opener for this “fake government” of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which could no longer detain Khan.

Last week in a talk with journalists during a court hearing in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, Khan said that he

will “remain in jail for my whole life but not strike a deal for my freedom. I will not compromise on the struggle for Haqiqi Azadi.”

A few days ago, Khan on his X account wrote about the deplorable conditions he is kept in the prison.