On Friday, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will appear before the judiciary after the Supreme Court overturned his arrest decision, which caused riots across the country.
Khan, 70, was arrested on Tuesday while a court in Islamabad was hearing his testimony in a corruption case, and then placed in pretrial detention the next day for eight days.
On Friday morning, he arrived at the court, where he will request bail, an AFP correspondent reported.
However, the Supreme Court considered on Thursday that his arrest was “invalid and illegal,” according to the written ruling, which was published overnight. It believed that this arrest, at the initiative of the Anti-Corruption Office, “violated his rights to resort to justice.”
But she kept him in the custody of the police assigned to protect him until Friday, when the court session in which he was arrested takes place.
“We hope to grant him bail,” said Faisal Hussain Chowdhury, Khan’s lawyer, which would spare him a second arrest in this file.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanullah warned that the security forces would “arrest Khan again”. He added in televised statements, “If the Supreme Court approves his release on bail (…) we will wait for the bail to be cancelled, and we will arrest him again.”
Khan is the target of dozens of cases, which he considers an attempt by the government and the army to prevent him from returning to power.
Human rights advocates say Pakistani courts are often used to launch lengthy proceedings aimed at stifling political dissent.
“time limit”
Analyst Imtiaz Gul told AFP that in this context, the court’s decision appears to be “just a respite, most likely as part of efforts to control the situation, which has become explosive, and to reduce tension.”
Hundreds of police and paramilitary forces have been deployed around the court and all roads leading to it have been closed, an AFP correspondent reported. Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party called on its supporters to go to Islamabad to support it, but the police immediately announced a ban on any gathering.
Two senior party officials were arrested overnight on charges of masterminding violence, bringing the number of those arrested among party cadres to ten. “This proves that the government is not seriously trying to solve the problem,” Chowdhury said.
The arrest of Khan, who was ousted in April 2022 but is counting on unaffected popularity, to return to power during the next elections this year, sparked violent protests across the country.
Hundreds of police officers were injured and more than 2,000 demonstrators were arrested, especially in the provinces of Punjab (center-east) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest), according to the police.
--At least nine people were killed in demonstration-related incidents, according to police and medical sources.
In a rare matter in Pakistan, thousands of supporters of Khan’s party attacked the symbols of the army, accusing it of having contributed to the removal of its leader, who had been in power since 2018.
In a rare matter in Pakistan, thousands of supporters of Khan’s party attacked the symbols of the army, accusing it of having contributed to the removal of its leader, who had been in power since 2018.
The authorities ordered internet services to be cut off and imposed restrictions on social networks, in addition to closing schools and canceling year-end exams.
Red line
The arrest of Khan, the former international cricket player who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, comes within the framework of a long political crisis in Pakistan that led to his campaign against the army, which has wide influence in the country.
These events constitute a remarkable escalation in the months-long political crisis in Pakistan, during which Imran Khan launched an unprecedented campaign against the army.
The army had initially supported Khan’s rise to power in 2018, before withdrawing its support for him. Khan was then removed by a vote of no confidence in his government in parliament in April 2022.
Khan hopes to return to power and is pressing in vain on the government to organize early elections before October, in a country mired in a deep economic and political crisis.
Criticism of the army in Pakistan is a red line.
Politicians have been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan since the country’s founding in 1947.
But few of them directly challenged the army, which carried out at least three coups and ruled the country for more than three decades, and its leaders enjoy wide influence in domestic and foreign policy.
Khan says the cases against him are part of a campaign by the government and army to prevent him from returning to power.
Khan’s arrest came hours after the army criticized him for accusing, during a large gathering last weekend in Lahore, the senior intelligence officer, General Faisal Naseer, of involvement in an attempt on his life in November, during which the former prime minister was shot in the leg. The army denies the charge.
