Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan's house in Lahore remains surrounded by police. The 70-year-old veteran politician said earlier that police were preparing to detain him again. Khan was arrested last week in connection with the corruption case. On Thursday, Pakistan Supreme Court ruled that arrest was illegal. Well, Johnny, as a snar from Lahore, is Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Mr. Khan, welcome to the programme. Could you give us first of all an update of your situation? Now you still anticipating arrest at this time? Well, my house is surrounded by the police. Basically, they've cut my house off from the main roads. And there was a police statement that there were 40 terrorists hiding in my house so they were going to come and search for these terrorists. So I've invited everyone, the media and everyone to come and look for these terrorists, which are supposed to be hiding in my house. I believe it's just a pretext for them to again conduct a raid and pick me up. So you say that those people that they suggest are involved in the violence of last week and not at your property? What they're saying is that once I was abducted and I used the word abducted, confirmed by the Supreme Court, unlawfully picked up from within the presence of the Islamabad High Court, there was a reaction in the public. We believe that any independent investigation will show that the people who came out for me were peaceful protesters as they have been for 27 years. There were some people we believe were in certain in there which created arson. And that's what has given them the reason to crack down on us seven and a half thousand of our people I jailed today. All my top leadership is in jail. So you say that your supporters are not responsible in any way for the violence and in fact it was other elements who do not belong to the party, you do not support you that caused the damage and violence instead. Is that what you'll say? I, what I'm saying Nick, this was deliberate and you have to know the background. The audience must know why. The reason is that the rating of my political party is 70% today. 70% compared to all the other parties which are 13, 10% and so on. And so this is the election year and all the parties plus the establishment wants me to be removed from the electoral field. And to do that, there have been 150 cases already on me. They've been trying to put me in prison before. I understand what you're saying. But I just want to get to the bottom of this. The fact that hundreds of police officers were injured and officials were seriously injured. And you're seriously suggesting that they were injured by their own side. No, what I'm saying is that for 27 years we have been holding protests like any political party does. When I was short and I named one of the military intelligence officers one of the three suspects. Why were they burning and asking or anything? There were protests but none of our, there were peaceful protests. But there was nothing like what happened now. What happened right now was that this was a deliberate, the, the arson I'm talking about, the arson was committed deliberately. 25 people died in this. 700 people got bullet wounds, all of our supporters. Or and if there's any independent inquiry you will find that there were peaceful protesters. And the arson was done, all the other evidence is coming out. In social media days you can't hide it. All right, we'll see. That's an investigation. That's an evidence. There's an investigation and see what the reality was. But do you not feel that by calling your supporters out to protest, you are effectively inciting violence? Look, look, I mean, which democracy does not allow people to protest peacefully when they think they've been wronged? It made me a democracy. When I'm picked up unlawfully, I was on bail. They could not pick me up. They grabbed me, not just grab me, but the beat up people, people got injured. They took me like, like an ordinary terrorist. What did you think? Would they not be a reaction? Would they not be peaceful protest on that? They were always going to be protest. But what I'm saying is that the arson was not us. And I can again say that whenever there's independent investigation, it will be proved that it wasn't us. You, of course, were given bail by the Supreme Court. Do you not then have faith in Pakistan's judicial system? The only thing that is holding together Pakistan's democracy is our judicial system. This is the only thing. Otherwise, what is happening now is people come out, get bail from one case, immediately this police would grab them and take them in for some other case. How can seven and a half thousand people be in jail? How can all the top leadership be in jail? At least they must prove some evidence that they were involved in some wrongdoing. Or my people have always been told to protest peacefully. I have all the statements from 27 years I've always said stable between the Constitution and the law. Do not end does in any violence. And we are parties known for that. So how come suddenly this started burning down buildings? We have evidence that there were people planted inside who did that. Where is the nation going to find resolution here? Two sides are so polarized the country is divided. Where is resolution coming from? Look Nick, there is only one solution. This is an election year. The elections cannot be held beyond October. So three months before the elections, the government gets dissolved. So which is another two and a half months. Now that is the solution. But unfortunately what is happening is that the government is running away from elections. They were supposed to be provincial assembly elections and 70% of Pakistan according to the Constitution ruled by the Supreme Court. The government refused. So they've already violated the Constitution because they're scared of losing the elections. Who finally, Imran Khan are you blaming? Is it the government or the army, the military? Who do you think is behind this? Well, of course the 12-party coalition which is in government, but they were brought in government by the ex-Army Chief. So the military means one man, Army Chief because it's not a democratic institution. So basically what he decides goes. So what is happening right now clearly is that there are neither the military establishment, which means one man, nor these 12 parties, they're too scared for elections because they're scared I would win. So because of that, they're doing everything to make sure that I get out of the race. I have had two assassination attempts on me. One was where I was hit. One where I was lucky to be alive because I got saved. Thank God. So this is the issue. 150 cases on me. Someone who has not had one criminal case in last few months has 150 cases including 15 criminal cases in a day, 40 terrorist cases. So I think this is all to get me out of the race. Actually, I'm going to throw one more question. In the past year you have blamed the United States for inciting all of this. Do you still think that's the case? Well, what was what we now subsequently discovered? Well, let me give you the background. I am a pastor. Pakistan Ambassador when I was a prime minister in Washington. He had a meeting with the US official, official meeting and the cipher, this secret message which came to me was that the US official said that unless you remove Imran Khan as your prime minister, they'll be consequences. Pakistan. But later on we discovered that it didn't originate from there. Our ex-Harmic Chief had fed the Americans against me and got me anti-American. We just all this came out later on. So it was initiated from here. The Americans would roll high. I was anti-American and then came the cipher. All right, we'll leave it there. Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan. Thank you. Thank you.