Amidst a routine court appearance on Tuesday, Imran Khan was
forcibly taken into custody by dozens of paramilitary troops, sparking
widespread unrest.
After days of nationwide protests following his arrest on
corruption charges, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has arrived
safely back at his residence in Lahore, having been granted bail. Following the
court's decision, Imran Khan spent several hours in negotiations with his legal
team over his exit, before finally being allowed to leave. As he travelled to
his home, he released a video statement from his vehicle, claiming that the
Islamabad police had tried to prevent him from leaving the court through
various tactics, and that he was only allowed to go when he threatened to
inform the public that he was being held there against his will.
Imran Khan was arrested during a routine court appearance on
Tuesday, when he was taken into custody by dozens of paramilitary troops. The
following day, the Supreme Court declared his arrest "unlawful" and
ordered that he be presented before the court on the following day. The
standoff between Imran Khan and the government sparked several days of rioting
by his supporters, raising concerns of widespread unrest in the country.
Imran Khan's arrest came just hours after he had accused the
powerful military of being involved in an assassination attempt against him the
previous year. The case for which he was arrested, known as the Al-Qadir Trust
case, concerns land that Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi bought from property
tycoon Malik Riaz for their Al-Qadir University Trust. The National
Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's anti-corruption agency, alleges that Imran
Khan's government struck a deal with Riaz in a quid pro quo arrangement and
that his cabinet helped Riaz launder over $239 million while causing a loss to
the national exchequer.
Over the past year, Imran Khan has had dozens of cases
registered against him, including corruption, terrorism, sedition, and
blasphemy, since he was removed from power in April of last year. He has denied
all accusations, calling them politically motivated.
In the wake of Imran Khan's detention, several thousand of
his supporters have taken to the streets in protest. Since Tuesday, they have
rampaged through cities, setting fire to buildings, blocking roads, and
clashing with police outside military installations. The unrest has led to at
least nine deaths, with hundreds of police officers injured and over 4,000
people detained, mainly in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
On Friday, Faisal Hussain Chaudhry, a lawyer for Khan,
announced that ten senior leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party
had also been arrested.
The Interior Minister has vowed to re-arrest Imran Khan, who
remains hugely popular ahead of elections scheduled for October. Interior
Minister Rana Sanaullah told Geo News, a private television channel, that while
court orders must be obeyed, if there was a way to arrest Imran Khan, it would
be done. Mobile data services and access to social media platforms, including
Facebook and YouTube, which were cut shortly after Khan’s arrest, were
gradually being restored across the country.
Imran Khan has launched an unprecedented campaign against the
military, and on Friday, inside the courtroom, he blamed the army's commander,
General Syed Asim Munir, for the situation in the country. Imran Khan stated
that there is no democracy in the army, and it is just one man, the army chief,
who is responsible for the situation.
The military has been Pakistan's most powerful institution,
having directly ruled the country through three coups for half of its 75-year
history. Although the military has traditionally intervened in times of
economic or political instability, the military spokesman Major-General Ahmed
Sharif Chaudhry said that the army's senior leadership places complete trust in
democracy, and there is no possibility of martial law.
