Pakistani paramilitary troops outside a court where former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan appears, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday May 9, 2023. GHULAM FARID / AP
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested on Tuesday (May 9) while appearing in a court in Islamabad in one of several cases against him since he was ousted from power in April 2022, police said. “Imran Khan was arrested in the Qadir Trust case,” he hinted laconically the official twitter account of the police in islamabad, in relation to a corruption case. Mr Khan has been the target of dozens of lawsuits since he was ousted last year.
Leaders of Mr Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (“Pakistan Justice Movement”, PTI), urged their supporters to take to the streets, but police warned that an order banning gatherings of more than four persons is in force and will be strictly enforced. Local TV channels showed scenes of the stampede outside the courthouse, where hundreds of PTI supporters clashed with security forces.
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Imran Khan’s arrest comes a day after the army warned of “unfounded allegations” by the former prime minister. At a weekend rally in Lahore, Mr Khan again claimed that Major General Faisal Naseer, a senior intelligence officer, was implicated in his assassination attempt in early November 2022. The former prime minister was shot in the leg.
“These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely regrettable, regrettable and unacceptable,” the Army’s Interservice Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. “This has been a constant trend since last year. Military and intelligence officials are the target of innuendos and noisy propaganda aimed at furthering political ends,” he adds. ISPR said it reserves the right to “take legal action against manifestly false and malicious statements and propaganda.”
“Assumptions without any evidence”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whom Mr Khan has also accused of involvement in the assassination plot, said: “His allegations without evidence against General Faisal Naseer and our intelligence officials cannot be admitted and will not be tolerated. ” he pointed this out on Twitter.
Criticism of the military institution is rare in Pakistan, where army leaders wield significant influence over domestic and foreign policy. They have long been accused of interfering in the rise and fall of governments.
The military warning shows how badly relations between Mr Khan and the country’s powerful military have deteriorated. She initially supported him when he took power in 2018, but then removed her again, and then in April 2022 Imran Khan was forced out of office by a vote of no confidence in parliament. Since then, the politician has been campaigning for the fragile coalition government to hold early elections before October.
Officially, the attack on Mr. Khan is the work of a lone gunman, who confessed to being the perpetrator in a video released by the police and is now in custody. Those conclusions were dismissed by Mr Khan, who points out that authorities dismissed his attempts to file an initial information report (IRR) with the police to identify the “real culprits”. “There is no reason for me to make up facts,” the ex-prime minister said in a video released on Tuesday.
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Imran Khan target of dozens of lawsuits
Mr Khan has been the target of dozens of lawsuits since his ouster, a tactic used by various Pakistani governments to silence their opponents, analysts say.
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Pakistan’s powerful military wields immense influence over the country and has staged at least three coups since independence in 1947, lasting more than thirty years. As October’s national election draws near, a myriad of lawsuits are being scrutinized in the courts to secure early votes in provincial assemblies, which are usually held at the same time.
Years of financial mismanagement and political instability have brought Pakistan’s economy to the brink of collapse, a situation exacerbated by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that submerged a third of the country last year.
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