New Delhi: The Imran Khan vs Pakistan army saga that saw the former prime minister land in prison got personal on Tuesday with the PTI chief hinting that an attempt was made by the establishment to poison his wife Bushra Bibi. The weapon used? Three drops of Harpic, the toilet cleaner. However, Pakistanis are not convinced. They are questioning the former first lady, “How did she know it was exactly three drops.”
Khan, in a hearing at the Adiala jail, said that if anything were to happen to Bushra, the army Chief, General Asim Munir should be held responsible. “I know who is behind it,” he said at a hearing of the Al Qadir Trust case Tuesday.
In December 2023, the National Accountability Bureau filed a corruption case against Khan and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University Trust. It was alleged that both Khan and his wife had taken unapproved benefits in the form of land for Al-Qadir University’s construction, altering funds provided to the Pakistani government by the National Command Authority (NCA), and purportedly offering legal protection for the property tycoon, Malik Riaz.
Both Khan and his wife were earlier given a reprieve by the Islamabad High Court that suspended the 14-year sentences imposed on them. The two won’t be released, though, because they had previous convictions.
According to local reports, Bushra Bibi claimed that she was poisoned on 8 February with three drops of Harpic and fell ill a month later. When asked who tried to poison and why, she was stopped by Khan from answering any questions.
Bushra Bibi’s poisoning
Khan is insisting his wife be examined by a separate physician. He added that Bushra had marks on her tongue and mouth. The former prime minister has claimed that the intelligence agency agents were in charge of everything at Bani Gala and Adiala jail. Bushra Bibi is in Bani Gala sub-jail.
The court ordered Imran to submit a thorough application regarding the former first lady’s medical examination at the request of the former premier.
Bushra Bibi on her part, chose to go into details in the court. She has reported experiencing chest and stomach pain, swollen eyes, and an unpleasant taste in her meals and water. She claimed that suspicious materials, including honey, had been incorporated into her meals in the past, and that this time it was the toilet cleaner, Express Tribune reported.
This is not the first time. Concerns over alleged threats to Bushra’s life have been made earlier as well.
In February, PTI had claimed that Bushra Bibi had been given “poisonous food” while being held captive, following which she suffered severe stomach ache.
Journalist Mubasher Lucman in a video expressed concerns if Bushra Bibi had actually consumed her own hand-made food and realised that it was poisonous. On Khan’s appeal for Bushra’s health check up at the Shaukat Khanum hospital, Lucman added that it is not a government hospital and that ‘laws cannot be changed for Khan’.
“If Bushra Bibi refuses to get examined at a government hospital, that means that these claims are false and have been made just to score points,” he added.
Pakistanis want facts. They are questioning Bushra Bibi’s claims on the basis of accuracy, asking ‘who was doing the counting?’ A Twitter user shared a picture of a blue Harpic bottle with Bushra Bibi’s face on it with the caption: 3 qatre Harpic ke (3 drops of Harpic)
Another social media user shared a clip on X of one of the panelists at a talk show asking if Bushra Bibi could divulge the details of the colour of Harpic as well.
“Was it the red one or the blue one?” she asks on TV.