Mehdi Hasan grills Khawaja Asif over claims against Imran Khan

British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on his online platform Zeteo, and posed hard-hitting questions about Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Pakistan’s hybrid governance system.

During the discussion, Mehdi raised a question on comments by lawyer Salman Akram Raja when Khawaja Asif interrupted, saying, “He (Imran Khan) is operating an X (formerly Twitter) account from the prison cell, you know.”

Mehdi quickly countered, reminding Asif of his earlier statement, “You said he was operating it from India the other day.”

Challenging the minister, Mehdi asked, “You’ve made two different allegations. Is Imran in a prison cell or in India?”

Khawaja Asif attempted to clarify, saying, “Either he is operating it from the prison cell, or he should at least identify who is running his social media.”

When pressed further on what evidence he had to support the claim that Khan’s social media was being operated from India, Asif replied that he could not disclose the details publicly, but insisted his statement was based on intelligence reports.

Mehdi then asked whether the minister believed Pakistanis would accept the notion that Imran Khan was “unpatriotic,” adding that how his government can convince the masses of such claims about the former prime minister.

It is pertinent to note that Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan was recently interrogated in Adiala Jail over alleged anti-state content being circulated from his social media accounts. However, he declined to disclose the identity of the person operating the accounts, saying, “They will be arrested if I name them.”