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Wednesday, a day after his shocking arrest sparked violent nationwide protests, the former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan will appear in a special court at the capital’s police headquarters to confront graft accusations.
The former international cricketer was reprimanded by the mighty military for claiming that a top officer had been involved in a conspiracy to kill him, which led to Khan’s arrest following months of political unrest.
Some demonstrators turned their ire on the military, setting fire to the corps commander’s mansion in Lahore and besieging the army’s general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The Chaghi monument, a mountain-shaped sculpture celebrating the site of Pakistan’s first nuclear test, was destroyed by a mob near Peshawar.
On Tuesday night, police and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters engaged in hours-long pitched skirmishes around the nation’s cities.
Two deaths were reported in those clashes by the local media.
On Wednesday morning, there was a noticeable cooling of the tensions, but there was still a heavy security presence across the city, especially beyond the so-called police lines where the special court will meet.
Along with ordering the closure of schools nationwide, authorities continued to impose restrictions on users’ access to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Farooq Bhatti, a vehicle driver in Rawalpindi, told AFP on Wednesday morning, “At a time we are already struggling to feed our children, further uncertainty has been created.”
Everyone will be impacted by the violence; but, I doubt the decision-makers will care.
Vice-chairman of the PTI Shah Mehmood Qureshi urged supporters to continue demonstrating “lawfully and peacefully,” and he added that the party’s attorneys would submit several appeals and petitions challenging Khan’s detention.
army backlash
Khan was found guilty of the allegation that brought about his downfall on Tuesday. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the nation’s primary anti-corruption organisation, presented the case and claimed that Khan had disregarded many court summonses.
Since his ouster in April, Khan has been charged with scores of offences, a strategy critics claim previous Pakistani regimes have employed to intimidate their rivals.
If found guilty, he might be prohibited from holding public office and thus be ineligible to run in the elections later this year.
Khan was detained a day after the military issued a warning to him against making “baseless allegations” after he once more claimed that a senior officer was involved in a murder plot against him.
The criticism delivered late Monday night highlighted how badly Khan’s relationships with the military have deteriorated. The military supported Khan’s ascent to power in 2018 but withdrew its backing before to a legislative vote of no confidence that led to his removal the following year.
According to Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, “the senior army leadership is uninterested in mending the rift between itself and Khan.”
The message that the gloves are off is probably being sent by this arrest.
The response came quickly from abroad.
The United States wants to “make sure that whatever happens in Pakistan is consistent with the rule of law, with the constitution,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Washington, D.C., with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday.
“We want to see peaceful democracy in that country,” Cleverly continued.
Khan is urging the failing coalition government for early elections as Pakistan is severely engaged in an economic and political crisis.
He has become more and more open in his criticism of the establishment, and to avoid being arrested, he depends on the fervent backing of the large crowds that attend his public appearances.
However, on Tuesday’s scheduled regular court appearance, the authorities pounced.
Khan was shoved into an armoured car within the Islamabad High Court grounds by scores of paramilitary rangers. Khan, who was shot during an assassination attempt last year, now walks with a noticeable limp.
Khan made the same allegations that senior intelligence official Major-General Faisal Naseer was engaged in an assassination attempt last year during which he was injured in the leg during a rally over the weekend in Lahore.
“This fabricated and malicious allegation is extremely unfortunate, deplorable, and unacceptable,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) branch of the military stated in a statement.
The government claims that a lone gunman who is currently in custody and who admitted to the assassination attempt in a video that was contentiously leaked to the media.
The sixth-largest military in the world, that of Pakistan, has disproportionate influence over the country.
Since the nation’s independence in 1947, it has reigned for more than three decades and staged at least three coups.
