Pakistan Supreme Court Rules Imran Khan’s Arrest Illegal

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Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the immediate release of former prime minister Imran Khan, ruling his arrest on corruption charges on Tuesday, which has sparked mass protests that have left at least 10 dead, was illegal, Associated Press and BBC are reporting.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested Tuesday, but a top court ruled his arrest illegal two … [+] days later.

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Key Facts

The court order on Thursday came after Khan’s legal team challenged his arrest earlier this week, with Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial calling the arrest “invalid” and saying “the whole process needs to be backtracked,” BBC reported.

On Tuesday, Khan was forcibly removed from Islamabad High Court where he was facing corruption charges, dragged into an armored vehicle and brought to an unknown location.

Khan was arrested by Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau, for not cooperating with the agency’s investigations into a charitable trust Khan was allegedly using as a cover to receive bribes, according to the Washington Post.

Khan denied the allegations and said he was “detained on incorrect charges” in a pre-recorded statement released after his arrest.

Khan’s arrest escalated political tensions between supporters of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party and the current prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is backed by Pakistan’s military, and sparked violent demonstrations across the country which have resulted in 10 deaths and more than 2,000 arrests, according to BBC.

Key Background

Khan, a former cricket captain who served as prime minister for four years starting in August 2018, was ousted in April 2022 by a no-confidence vote in parliament. He was charged by police with terrorism after he delivered a speech accusing police of torturing his aide Shahbaz Gill. Khan said his charges were politically motivated, and blamed his ousting on the West, saying the U.S. was planning to overthrow him in a coup after he visited Moscow on the same day Russia invaded Ukraine. Over the summer, members from Khan’s PTI party made an unexpected comeback, winning 15 of 20 contested government seats in a July election.

Tangent

Khan was replaced by Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who was Pakistan’s longest-serving prime minister but was ousted by the supreme court in 2017 over corruption charges related to revelations in the Panama Papers. Khan played a major role in mobilizing Pakistanis against Nawaz Sharif in 2016, demanding corruption investigations and his resignation. When Khan became prime minister in 2018, analysts believed he was backed by Pakistan’s powerful military, but he has denied this and has been strongly critical of the military since he was ousted. Seven senior PTI leaders have been arrested, including former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who police say “incited violence.”

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