By Munir Ahmed and Riazat Butt | Related Press
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested and dragged from courtroom Tuesday as he appeared to face expenses in a number of graft circumstances, a dramatic escalation of political tensions that sparked violent demonstrations by his offended supporters throughout the nation.
The arrest of Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 however stays the main opposition determine, represented the newest confrontation to roil Pakistan, which has seen former prime ministers arrested through the years and interventions by its highly effective army.
A minimum of one individual was reported killed in clashes between protesters and the army in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, with one other 5 folks wounded there, whereas about 15 accidents had been reported amid related violence in Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Police fired tear fuel to disperse demonstrations.
Amid the violence, officers at Pakistan’s telecommunication authority mentioned regulators blocked social media, together with Twitter, and web service was suspended within the capital of Islamabad and different cities. Courses at some personal colleges had been canceled for Wednesday.
Khan was faraway from the Islamabad Excessive Courtroom by safety brokers from the Nationwide Accountability Bureau, mentioned Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official along with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf get together, after which shoved into an armored automotive and whisked away.
Chaudhry denounced the arrest of the 71-year-old former cricket star as “an abduction.” Pakistan’s unbiased GEO TV broadcast video of Khan being hauled away.
A scuffle broke out between Khan’s supporters and police outdoors the courtroom. A few of Khan’s legal professionals and supporters had been injured within the melee, as had been a number of police, Chaudhry mentioned.
Khan was taken to the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, close to Islamabad, for questioning on the workplaces of the Nationwide Accountability Bureau, in keeping with police and authorities officers. He additionally was to bear a routine medical checkup, police mentioned.
Khan had arrived on the Islamabad Excessive Courtroom from close by Lahore, the place he lives, to face expenses within the graft circumstances.
He has denounced the circumstances in opposition to him, which embrace terrorism expenses, as a politically motivated plot by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, saying his ouster was unlawful and a Western conspiracy. Khan has campaigned in opposition to Sharif and demanded early elections.
Tuesday’s arrest was primarily based on a brand new warrant from the Nationwide Accountability Bureau obtained final week in a separate graft case for which Khan had not been granted bail. His legal professionals challenged the legality of the arrest, however the courtroom upheld it, though it added that Khan shouldn't have been forcibly faraway from the courtroom. Khan is scheduled to seem at an anti-graft tribunal on Wednesday, officers mentioned.
“Imran Khan has been arrested as a result of he was being sought in a graft case,” Inside Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan informed a information convention. He alleged Pakistan’s treasury had misplaced thousands and thousands of dollars whereas Khan was in workplace as a result of unlawful purchases of lands from a enterprise tycoon.
The Nationwide Accountability Bureau is Pakistan’s highly effective anti-corruption group that has detained and investigated former officers, together with prime ministers, politicians and retired army officers. However some view the NAB as a instrument utilized by these in energy, particularly the army, to crack down on political opponents. When Khan was in energy, his authorities arrested Sharif, then the opposition chief, by the NAB.
At a information convention, Regulation Minister Azam Tarar mentioned Khan was arrested as a result of he was not cooperating with the investigations. He additionally denounced the violence by Khan supporters, saying that protests should stay peaceable.
“It ought to haven't occurred,” he mentioned, shortly after TV video emerged of burning automobiles and broken public property in components of the nation.
Authorities mentioned they've banned rallies within the japanese province of Punjab.
Because the information of the arrest unfold, about 4,000 of Khan’s supporters stormed the official residence of the highest regional commander in Lahore, smashing home windows and doorways, damaging furnishings and staging a sit-in as troops there retreated to keep away from violence. The protesters additionally burned police automobiles and blocked key roads.
Protesters additionally smashed the principle gate of the military’s headquarters within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, the place troops exercised restraint. A whole bunch of demonstrators shouted pro-Khan slogans as they moved towards the sprawling constructing.
Within the port metropolis of Karachi, police swung batons and fired tear fuel to disperse a whole bunch of Khan supporters who had gathered on a key highway.
Raoof Hasan, one other chief from Khan’s get together, informed Al Jazeera English tv that the arrest is “blatant interference within the judicial affairs by the powers-that-be.” Hasan added that Khan “was just about kidnapped from the courtroom of legislation.”
Khan’s arrest got here hours after he issued a video message earlier than heading to Islamabad, saying he was “mentally ready” for arrest there.
Khan was wounded by a gunman at a rally in November, an assault that killed one among his supporters and wounded 13. He has insisted, with out providing any proof, that there's a plot to assassinate him, alleging that Pakistan’s spy company was behind the conspiracy. The gunman was instantly arrested and police later launched a video of him in custody, allegedly saying he had acted alone.
In a strongly worded assertion Monday, the army accused Khan of “fabricated and malicious allegations” of its involvement within the November taking pictures, saying they're “extraordinarily unlucky, deplorable and unacceptable.”
The army has immediately dominated Pakistan for greater than half of the 75 years because the nation gained independence from British colonial rule, and wields appreciable energy over civilian governments.
Sharif, whose authorities faces spiraling financial woes and is struggling to recuperate from final 12 months’s devastating floods that killed a whole bunch and brought about $30 billion in injury, slammed Khan for assailing the army.
“Let this be abundantly clear that you just, as former prime minister, at present on trial for corruption, are claiming legitimacy to overturn the authorized and political system,” Sharif tweeted after Khan’s arrest.
In a press release, the European Union urged “restraint and funky headedness” within the nation, by dialogue and the rule of legislation.
Khan is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested and hanged in 1979. The present prime minister’s brother, Nawaz Sharif, who additionally served as prime minister, was arrested a number of instances on corruption allegations.
In March, police stormed Khan’s Lahore residence, looking for to arrest him primarily based on a courtroom order in a special case. Dozens of individuals, together with police, had been injured in ensuing clashes. Khan was not arrested on the time and later obtained bail within the case.
Khan got here to energy in 2018 after successful parliamentary elections and had initially good relations with the army which steadily soured.