Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Shahbaz Sharif-led coalition government in politically unstable Pakistan, buffeted with various crises, including a sinking economy, is likely to pin down its bête noire, former PM Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, by making him ineligible to contest fresh elections he has been demanding since his ouster in April this year.
Indications of this ‘strategy’ came on Tuesday amid rumors of Imran’s ‘imminent’ arrest and some of his supporters’ march on Islamabad.
According to media reports quoting officials, a court may soon convict Imran Khan of contempt following his weekend speech in which he threatened police officers and a judicial magistrate.
Legal experts said that if the court convicts him, it will disqualify the former PM from contesting elections for the next five years.
“It is a criminal conviction,” a retired judge, Shaiq Usmani, told television channel Geo News, adding that Khan could face six months in jail if convicted. “Because of it, he cannot contest any election for five years.”
In the past, Pakistani courts have disqualified several lawmakers, including a former PM (Shahid Khaqan Abbasi), from contesting polls.
Khan is facing charges under an anti-terror law. Police had recently filed a case against him for his alleged threats after one of his aides was booked on sedition charges for inciting mutiny in the military.
“We will not spare you,” Khan said in the speech that named the police chief and the judge involved in the case against the aide. “We will sue you.”
The use of anti-terrorism laws as the grounds for cases against political leaders is routine in Pakistan, where Khan’s previous government also used them against opponents and critics.
His political outfit, the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has dismissed the accusations against Khan as being politically motivated, saying they were being used to block him from leading anti-government rallies.
Imran Khan, who became the PM in October 2018 but lost a confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, had come to power with the Pakistani Army’s support on a conservative agenda that appealed to many middle-class and religious voters.
But analysts said he fell out with the military after a dispute over the appointment of a spy chief.
Khan denied ever having military support, and the military, which has ruled Pakistan for over three decades of its 75-year history, denies involvement in civilian politics.