Pakistan’s military delivered one of its strongest public rebukes yet against former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday, accusing him of being “mentally ill” and a “narcissist” after he described Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir as “mentally unstable” in a post on X.
In a nationally televised briefing, army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry condemned Khan’s escalating attacks on the military, saying his political ambitions had become so extreme that he believed “if I am not in power, nothing else should exist.” Although Chaudhry avoided naming Khan directly, the target of his remarks was unmistakable.
Chaudhry alleged that individuals visiting Khan in prison were being used to spread “poison against the army.” His comments followed a visit by one of Khan’s sisters, who later told reporters the former prime minister was enraged by Munir’s leadership.
The confrontation intensified a day after Khan, 73, posted on X calling Gen. Munir a “mentally unstable person” and accusing him of overseeing the “complete collapse” of Pakistan’s Constitution and rule of law. Khan also claimed he and his wife were jailed “at his command” on fabricated charges and said he was being kept in isolation under psychological pressure.
Khan’s spokesperson, Zulfiquar Bukhari, dismissed the army’s briefing as an “emotional outburst,” accusing the military of trying to intimidate Khan and justify an intensified crackdown on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Bukhari claimed that prison authorities had now banned further meetings with Khan.
Khan has been detained since a 2023 corruption conviction and faces multiple additional cases. During the briefing, Chaudhry displayed screenshots of Khan’s recent posts, accusing the media of amplifying the “nonsense” of a “mentally ill person” and rejecting Khan’s allegations against Munir as baseless.
The latest clash comes soon after President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved Munir’s promotion to the newly created role of chief of defence forces, designed to coordinate Pakistan’s army, navy and air force.
Chaudhry accused Khan of attempting to incite public hostility toward the military and warned that the army would not allow anyone to “create rifts between Pakistan’s military and its people.” He reiterated long-standing accusations linking Khan to the violent May 9, 2023 attacks on military installations, including the Rawalpindi headquarters—charges Khan continues to deny.
Chaudhry added that any decision to ban PTI rests with the civilian government, though he accused the party of acting “in deep collusion with external actors” and posing a threat to national stability.
Khan, who was ousted from office in an April 2022 no-confidence vote, maintains that the 2024 general election was rigged to benefit Prime Minister Sharif—a claim the government denies.