Breaking: Arrested (Again) Ousted Pakistani Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi, After First Arrest in May 2023
Breaking: Arrested (Again) Ousted Pakistani Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi, After First Arrest in May 2023
1.19pm Lahore / 1.49pm New Delhi / 9.19am London / 4.19am DC
Police have arrested former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi —- better known as Imran Khan, in the eastern city of Lahore, his residence in Zaman Park this morning (around 9am Lahore or 11pm in DC), his lawyer has said, after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts. He’s convicted for three years in the Tosha Khana case and disqualified from politics. Imran Khan being transferred to prison.
Legal experts say a conviction in the case could end Mr Khan's chances of participating in national elections that have to be held before early November.
Mr Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said in a statement they had already filed an appeal in the country's Supreme Court over the district court case. PTI has 10 million active members.
Police surrounding Khan's residence in Lahore after the verdict was released.
The sentence relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission, which found Mr Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
Mr Khan has denied any wrongdoing.
The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees (US$351,000 or €575,945).
3 Months ago (May 9th, 2023), Imran Khan (also) was arrested on corruption charges - a moment he had successfully avoided for several months.
Previous attempts had ended in near misses. In March, a court order to detain him was thwarted by pitched battles between his supporters and police outside his home in Lahore.
His arrest, which happened while he was in court in the capital Islamabad, was no less dramatic. The 70-year-old is barely visible among a swarm of officers in riot gear as they escort him outside and bundle him into a vehicle.
Mr Khan has faced dozens of charges, from corruption to sedition, since he was ousted after losing a confidence vote last year. So his arrest is not unexpected.
But it has enraged his supporters and even shocked a country that was hoping for an end to the political stand-off that has pushed Pakistan to the brink.
But May 12, 2023, Imran Khan has been granted bail by the Islamabad High Court, days after his dramatic arrest over corruption charges set off a deadly outpouring of anger against the country’s military.
“I will again be illegally arrested, this time outside the High Court, I know I will be arrested. My simple message is, how I am I supposed to control what will happen afterwards?” Khan said May 12, 2023. And yes, today, August 5th, police have arrested Imran Khan.
There is little question among analysts who is orchestrating the arrests and resignations. Since Khan’s relationship with the all-powerful military establishment fell apart and led to his fall from power, he has been on a crusade against the army leadership.
Continuation of a pattern by the military that has marred the country’s pathway to democracy since 1958, when the first military coup took place.
Since then, the military has routinely asserted itself as the most powerful political player in Pakistan, either through direct rule or by controlling and masterminding things behind the scenes. All of the country’s most powerful political parties have fallen foul of military crackdowns and arrests. Before Khan, it was the prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, who in 2017, after falling out with the military, was toppled from power and jailed for corruption, as were several others before him.
“This is no anomaly, it is something that the military does occasionally whenever it feels that it needs to tame a civilian political outlet which is getting too big for its boots,” said Paliwal. “The military is the only party that is ruling the country.”
Khan would not be the first prime minister to be put on trial by the military. In 1977, the prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was deposed in a military coup, put on trial under martial law and then executed.
The pressures imposed on senior figures, and even those lower down the ranks of PTI, have been stark. One senior party leader who was arrested in May and has since resigned from PTI described being handed over by police to the notorious military agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
“For me they used multiple methods to pressure me to leave the party, but one of the worst was torture,” he said, requesting anonymity over fear of the military. “They tied my feet and hung me upside down and I was like a punching bag for them. They were beating with sticks and punches and kicking me.
“They called my family and threatened them and told me that they would pick up my children and entire family if I don’t leave the party. The offer I was given was that if I left PTI, I would get relief. I knew there was no other way.”
Even those lower down in the party described the pressure they were receiving from the military, with many accused of taking part in violent riots and protests that erupted on 9 May after Khan’s arrest. Homes and headquarters of the military were among the buildings attacked in the violence.
Since then, the military and government have described it as a “black day” for Pakistan and vowed to bring the full force of the state down on those who took part, while accusing Khan of being the mastermind. Those who participated, and even those who were just affiliated with the party, have been rounded up in their thousands and charged with terrorism offences, with some due to face trial in military courts.
The brother of a PTI youth wing leader said his whole family had been in hiding since 9 May, after experiencing raids on their homes and constant harassment by police. He said he had been separated from his wife and newborn baby for almost a month as a result.
“Why are they harassing me or my parents just because my brother is part of the PTI leadership?” he said. “We have received indirect messages to ‘quit PTI if you don’t want to be in this situation’. This is the worst political situation I’ve seen in my life.”
Human rights groups have expressed concern that the military are turning to their other notorious strategy of intimidation for those aligned with PTI or opposed to the military: disappearances.
The pro-PTI journalist Imran Riaz Khan (who is not related to former PM Khan) has been missing since 11 May. On Sunday, Murad Akbar, the brother of a former adviser to Imran Khan, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, was picked up from the family home and has not been seen since, with the police denying any knowledge of his whereabouts.
“We all know who is responsible,” said Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who is in the UK and no longer an office bearer in PTI but is named as an accused in one of the prominent corruption cases against Khan. “My brother has no involvement in politics. Going after my brother and abducting him is to pressurise me.”
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