Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been arrested on Tuesday, May 9th, by Pakistani Rangers when he reached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the hearing of a corruption case, his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) alleged.
Khan’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhary said that the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-PTI chairman was taken in custody by the Rangers when he travelled from Lahore to Islamabad to attend the IHC’s hearing on anti-graft charges.
“Khan has been arrested in the Al-Qadeer trust case when he was present in the Islamabad High Court”, the PTI said in a statement. Earlier, in a video message to his party workers and supporters, Khan had alleged that he may be arrested when he reaches Islamabad.
It’s alleged that the Pakistani Army may have played a role in his arrest, as the military had accused Khan on Monday, May 8th, of levelling baseless allegations against its senior officer. The Pakistani Army has not commented on the development.
Khan had alleged that an intelligence officer belonging to the army had tried to assassinate him twice. He said that if there was an investigation against the officer, then the truth would have come out.
PTI spokeswoman Shireen Mazari accused the Rangers of resorting to violence and torturing Khan and other PTI activists and lawyers. “State terrorism – breaking into IHC premises to abduct Imran Khan from court premises. Law of the jungle in operation. Rangers beat the lawyers, used violence on Imran Khan and abducted him”, Mazari tweeted.
The PTI has decided to stage protests all over the country. Its officials are alleging that the former prime minister is being tortured by the Rangers in custody and asked the people to support its movement. The party’s Islamabad wing shared videos showing security forces attacking protesters in Sialkot.
Fawad Chaudhary, the former information and the PTI’s vice-president, had claimed earlier that the IHC compound was occupied by the Rangers when Khan went there, and the lawyers were tortured by the paramilitary troopers.
Khan was ousted in April 2022 following a no-trust vote against him in Parliament. A lot of corruption cases have been filed against him under the new coalition government of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan People’s Party, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Earlier Imran Khan had rubbished the charges against him, calling them political vendetta by the Sharif-led regime before the upcoming general elections in Pakistan. The PTI has been organising mass movements against the current government and accusing the Pakistani Army of controlling the government.
