By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) -&nbsp;Pakistan's&nbsp;embattled former Prime Minister&nbsp;Imran&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;has accused the powerful&nbsp;military&nbsp;and its intelligence agency of&nbsp;openly&nbsp;trying&nbsp;to&nbsp;destroy&nbsp;his&nbsp;political&nbsp;party, saying he had "no doubt" he would be tried in a&nbsp;military&nbsp;court and thrown in jail.
Khan&nbsp;has hinted previously at the&nbsp;military's hand in a crackdown on&nbsp;his&nbsp;Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)&nbsp;party&nbsp;but&nbsp;his&nbsp;comments in an interview at&nbsp;his&nbsp;Lahore home on Saturday night were the most blunt yet.
"It is completely the establishment," the former cricket hero told Reuters, when asked who was behind the crackdown. "Establishment obviously means the&nbsp;military&nbsp;establishment, because they are really now&nbsp;openly&nbsp;- I mean, it's not even hidden now - they're just out in the open."
A spokesman for the&nbsp;military, which has run the country directly or indirectly for its 75-year&nbsp;history, and has seldom faced the sort of public challenge to its power as it has from&nbsp;Khan, did not respond to a request for comment.
A bruising year-long standoff between&nbsp;Khan,&nbsp;Pakistan's&nbsp;most popular leader according to polls, and the army came to a head when&nbsp;military&nbsp;buildings and property were ransacked last month, allegedly by&nbsp;his&nbsp;supporters.
The political unrest has increased uncertainty in the nuclear-armed country of 220 million, which is also beset by financial turmoil. Its $350 billion economy is struggling to stave off default, control record inflation and deal with a plummeting currency.
Khan&nbsp;termed the violent protests, which erupted after he was briefly arrested, a "false flag operation" meant to target him.
Authorities have begun the process of&nbsp;trying&nbsp;dozens of people, including members of&nbsp;his&nbsp;party, suspected of involvement in the protests in&nbsp;military&nbsp;court - usually reserved for service members or those categorised as enemies of the state.
"That's the only way they are going to get me into prison,"&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;said, adding that the&nbsp;military&nbsp;wanted to stop him from returning to power in elections due by November.
He said about 150 criminal cases filed against him were frivolous and would get thrown out in any civilian court.
"So their only hope, and because they are determined to get me out of the way, I think they will, their whole charade of&nbsp;military&nbsp;courts is to imprison me," he said.
"I have absolutely no doubt that the&nbsp;military&nbsp;courts are meant for me," said&nbsp;Khan, who is out on bail.
Amnesty International says&nbsp;Pakistan's&nbsp;military&nbsp;courts have previously shown disregard for due process, lack of transparency, coerced confessions and executions after unfair trials.
SPY AGENCY
Khan&nbsp;said the country's most powerful spy agency, the&nbsp;military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was deeply involved in the crackdown.
He said two senior members of&nbsp;his&nbsp;party&nbsp;were called by the agency for talks. "And when they went there, just they shut them up and said 'You (won't) leave unless you renounce being part of PTI.'"
Khan&nbsp;said he has tried to contact the&nbsp;military&nbsp;for talks to find a way out of the current crisis but had got no response, and that he did not know why the army chief, General Asim Munir, was "fixated" on sidelining him.
Before becoming army chief in November 2022, Munir was the head of the ISI - a post from which he was suddenly removed in 2019 while&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;was prime minister.
Khan&nbsp;himself was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote last year that he says was orchestrated by&nbsp;Pakistan's&nbsp;top generals. The&nbsp;military&nbsp;denies this.
No official reason was given for Munir's premature removal, but&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;acknowledged in the interview, for the first time, that he had wanted him gone from the role.
"I think that maybe he has a grudge because I asked him to resign" as ISI chief,&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;said. "I don't know."
When asked why he had asked Munir to resign,&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;said: "You know, I, as prime minister, felt that how the intelligence agency was run... I had my issues with that." He did not elaborate.
Munir was later selected as the country's top general by&nbsp;Khan's successor and political rival, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
"He shouldn't have issues with that now because he is the army chief,"&nbsp;Khan&nbsp;said, referring to Munir's removal as ISI head. "So why would he harbour that grudge?"
Khan&nbsp;said he was puzzled by the campaign against him.
"(I am) someone who's been known in this&nbsp;country for 50 years, who's probably won all the awards in this&nbsp;country and probably the most well-known Pakistani, and suddenly being treated as a sort of alien, as an enemy of the state."
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Pakistan's Imran Khan openly accuses military of trying to destroy his party