Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Nearly a year after he lost power in Pakistan, former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, 70, was on Tuesday arrested in Islamabad, in what is seen as a tipping point pushing the terror-infested and bankrupt South Asian country closer than ever to a civil war.
Commandoes of paramilitary forces, who arrested Imran Khan outside Islamabad High Court, whisked him away to an armored vehicle, the videos circulated by the media showed.
The former cricketer-turned-politician was arrested just as he was entering the Islamabad High Court for a hearing in one of the dozens of cases pending since he was ousted from office in April 2022.
Imran has been pushing the government to hold early elections but the Shehbaz Sharief-led coalition says the federal and provincial polls will be held in October as per schedule.
According to the media reports, Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq directed the Islamabad police chief, the Interior Ministry Secretary and the Additional Attorney-General to appear before him within 15 minutes.
“The IHC CJ said that he was showing ‘restraint’ and warned that he would ‘summon’ even the Prime Minister if the Islamabad police chief did not appear before the court,” Dawn said.
“Come to court and tell us why Imran has been arrested and in which case,” the Pakistani newspaper quoted Justice Farooq as saying.
Leaders from Imran’s party, Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), alleged that the police entered the court and dragged him outside to arrest him. His arrest came a day after Pakistan’s all-powerful army accused Khan of leveling baseless allegations against a senior officer of the spy agency ISI.
According to Islamabad police, which described the situation as “normal,” Imran Khan was arrested in the Qadir Trust case, which concerned allegations that Bahria Town allotted land worth PKR 530 million to Al-Qadir Trust, owned by the former PM and his wife. Police also imposed prohibitory orders in the national capital and warned PTI supporters against any violations.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah tweeted that Imran Khan failed to appear before the court despite being issued several notices. “The arrest has been conducted by the National Accountability Bureau for causing losses to the national treasury. No violence was done to him,” he tweeted in Urdu.
Hours before leaving for court, Imran Khan predicted his arrest in a video wherein he also accused top ISI officer Major-General Faisal Naseer of involvement in the assassination attempt against him in Wazirabad as well in the brutal murder of senior journalist Arshad Sharif.
“Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)’s Major-General Faisal Naseer tried to kill me twice. He is also involved in the killing of (TV anchor) Arshad Sharif. He also stripped my party Senator Azam Swati naked and inflicted severe torture on him,” Khan had said at a rally in Lahore on May 7 from his bullet-bomb-proof vehicle.
Arshad Sharif, who was critical of the Pakistani Army, was killed in Kenya in October 2022 after he fled the country citing threats to his life from the security agencies.
The former PM, who has been battling against both his political rivals and the Army, evaded arrest several times recently. He also dramatically escaped from a police raid at his residence in Lahore’s Zaman Park.
Imran Khan’s aide and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry had earlier claimed that Islamabad High Court was occupied by Rangers, and lawyers were being subjected to torture.
PTI also tweeted a video of an injured man with blood stains on his shirt, claiming Imran Khan’s lawyer was “badly injured” inside the court premises of IHC. “Black day for our democracy and country,” it said.