'I had a weak government and was blackmailed from everywhere': Imran Khan

In an extraordinary attack on Pakistan's powerful military, deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed that his government was "weak" and was "blackmailed from everywhere" because power was not with him and "everyone knows where it is."

Khan was deposed in April after losing a vote of no confidence in his leadership, which he said was part of a US-led plot to destabilise him over his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.

Khan was asked to recall the events of the night of the no-confidence vote against him, who was issuing orders, and who had obstructed the cases against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders in an interview with Bol News on Wednesday, according to the Dawn newspaper.

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The leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said his government was "weak" when it came to power and had to seek coalition partners, adding that if the circumstance arose again, he would seek re-elections and seek a majority government or none at all.

"Our hands were tied. We were blackmailed from everywhere. Power wasn't with us. Everyone knows where the power lies in Pakistan so we had to rely on them," the 69-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said, without elaborating any further who he was referring to.

Khan is the only Pakistani prime minister to have faced a no-confidence vote in Parliament since assuming power in 2018, purportedly with the support of the military. Shehbaz Sharif of the PML-N took his seat.

He added that because of the threat presented by the enemy, the country needed a "strong army," but that there was also a need to create a "balance" between having a strong force and a strong administration.

"We relied on them all the time. They did a lot of good things too but they didn't do many things that should've been done. They have the power because they control institutions such as NAB (National Accountability Bureau), which wasn't in our control," he said.

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