During a court hearing on anti-graft charges in Islamabad, Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was taken into custody by paramilitary forces. His political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has called on supporters to stage a nationwide protest to “shut down Pakistan” in response.
The Islamabad police tweeted that Imran Khan was arrested in the Qadir Trust case while he was attending court. According to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) apprehended Khan after he failed to appear before a tribunal despite receiving multiple notices. The NAB had issued arrest warrants for Khan on May 1, alleging “corruption and corrupt practices.”
In a pre-recorded video message released by his party officials, Khan anticipated his detention, saying, “By the time you receive these words, I would have been detained under a false case.”
According to Netblocks, an internet monitoring firm, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were restricted in Pakistan late Tuesday.
Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the political party led by Imran Khan, have called for protests to “shut down Pakistan” following Khan’s arrest. The party urged the people of Pakistan to save their country, claiming that this was a crucial opportunity. However, the police have warned that they will enforce the order banning gatherings of more than four people.
Fawad Chaudhry, a close aide of Khan and a former information minister, denounced the arrest as an “abduction.” National television broadcast footage of Khan being manhandled by paramilitary rangers and taken away in an armoured car. According to Ali Bukhari, a lawyer for the party, Khan was beaten and dragged out by dozens of rangers when they reached the court’s biometric room to mark attendance.
A scuffle ensued between Khan’s supporters and the police outside the court, resulting in injuries to some of Khan’s lawyers and supporters, Chaudhry said. Khan’s party has complained to the court, which has requested a police report explaining the charges for his arrest.
Demonstrations broke out in various cities throughout Pakistan, as supporters of Khan obstructed roadways in Islamabad, Peshawar, and other locales. A number of individuals forcefully entered the residence of the corps commander in Lahore, while others surrounded a gate at the army’s headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi.
In April 2022, Khan was removed from his position through a no-confidence vote. He alleges that his removal was not lawful and was part of a Western plot.
Since then, Khan has been campaigning against his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and has been calling for early elections. The political rivalry between the two has intensified during the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, resulting in clashes between Khan’s supporters and law enforcement.
Recently, Khan has accused a high-ranking intelligence officer, Major-General Faisal Naseer, of being involved in a shooting incident last year that resulted in Khan being shot in the leg. The military has rejected these accusations, labelling them as “fabricated” and “unacceptable.”
According to anonymous sources from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khan will appear before an anti-corruption tribunal on Tuesday.
Since his ousting, Khan has been slapped with nearly 100 charges. This is a strategy that, according to analysts, successive governments have used to stifle their opponents in a country where the military has an undue influence. If convicted in most of these cases, Khan will be banned from holding public office.
