Ousted Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has alleged that the Sharif family "paid a woman" – a veiled reference to his ex-wife Reham Khan — to write a book against him during the 2018 general elections, asserting that the "mafia" is once again attempting his character assassination and might release something after Eid, a media report said on Saturday.
Khan referred to the book in an indirect way for the first time since its publication in 2018 at a public gathering in Multan in Punjab province on Friday.
The ex-premier also spoke about his first wife Jemima Goldsmith and said the UK-born TV personality had to go through court cases and face allegations of being a member of the Jewish lobby from the “Sharif mafia”.
“They are the people who paid a woman to write a book against me in the 2018 elections. They will once again go for my character assassination after Eid. For them I have a message … I will fight against them as long as I am alive,” he was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune newspaper.
The book titled ‘Reham Khan’ is a 2018 controversial memoir written by Reham, a famous Pakistani British Journalist, filmmaker, and author.
Khan also accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of ordering the most number of encounters during his tenure as the Punjab chief minister and vowed he would continue speaking against the “mafias”.
He said Sharifs ran a whole campaign against Jemima, painting her as part of the Jewish lobby.
Khan said Jemima was also booked in a bogus case pertaining to tiles and had to face courts for a year despite the fact that the forensic test had made it clear that the tiles were not antique, the report said.
Since his ouster as the prime minister, Khan has been seeking public support against the “foreign conspiracy” and for conducting fresh elections in the country.
During his speech, while urging the people to come out to support his narrative against what he calls “imported government”, Khan said that he would try to gather two million people in Islamabad to demand fresh elections in the country at the earliest.
'Will issue white paper on corruption'
To a charged crowd, he also vowed to further expose the Sharif family by issuing a “White Paper” on their corruption cases.
He alleged that the foreign powers had “imposed” corrupt rulers just because it was easier for them to control them.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party took out protest rallies across the country on April 10, a day after he lost a vote of no-confidence. Since then, Khan has addressed attended rallies in several cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.
Khan on Saturday announced a rough timeframe for his planned long march to Islamabad, issuing a call for the last week of May without mentioning the exact date, the Dawn reported.
“This call is for all of Pakistan — not just to the PTI," he said in a video message released by his party PTI.
"I want to give a message to all of Pakistan to start preparing from now. The start of our preparation will be chaand raat (eve of Eid) and I want to say specifically to the youth that you have to come out with flags and tell the whole world that the Pakistani nation is alive," he said.
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