News
May 12 , 2023
Supreme Court Rules Imran Khan’s Arrest Was Illegal
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court has ruled that former prime minister Imran Khan's dramatic arrest on corruption charges this week was illegal.
The court ordered Mr Khan's immediate release. His lawyers had argued that his detention from court premises in Islamabad on Tuesday was unlawful.
At least 10 people have been killed and 2,000 arrested as violent protests have swept the country since he was held.
Tuesday's arrest escalated growing tensions between him and the military.
The opposition leader, ousted on a no-confidence vote in April last year, was brought to court on the orders of Pakistan’s top judge.
As Mr Khan arrived in court, media ran through the corridors to capture his first public appearance since he was arrested.
Surrounded by security, Mr Khan said nothing as he walked to the wood-paneled courtroom which was filled with officials from his party and journalists.
Mr Khan stood surrounded by his lawyers in front of the three Supreme Court judges as they told him that because of the way he had been arrested on Tuesday - inside a court complex, conducting biometric tests - the arrest was invalid.
Footage of his arrest showed paramilitary forces seizing Mr Khan, who was injured in a gun attack last year, and dragging him from inside the court premises, before whisking him away in an armored vehicle.
"Your arrest was invalid so the whole process needs to be backtracked," Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Mr Khan. He would now be under the protection of the Supreme Court.
It was then Mr Khan's turn to speak, defiant and indignant at the way he had been arrested.
The former cricketer told the judges he'd been kidnapped from the High Court on Tuesday and "hit with sticks". He was reminded several times by the judges that others had experienced worse treatment.
There was no immediate response from the security forces to the allegation.
His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party says the cases against him are politically motivated. The arrest enraged his supporters - the past 48 hours have seen widespread violence and rare attacks on state and military facilities.
Seven senior PTI leaders are among those arrested. They include former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who police say "incited violence". In a statement Mr Qureshi denied this and urged supporters to continue with peaceful protests.
Mr Khan has been kept at a police guesthouse in the capital since Tuesday, which was turned into a makeshift court on Wednesday where a judge formally charged him with corruption for the first time in the dozens of cases he faces. He pleaded not guilty.
Conviction would disqualify the former international cricket star - prime minister from 2018-2022 - from standing for office, possibly for life. Elections are due later this year.
Former Pakistani ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the BBC she thought the court's decision would help to defuse the anger of Mr Khan's supporters.
"The last couple of days have seen extraordinary violence by protesters who are supporters of Imran Khan, who are obviously enraged by the manner in which he was arrested," she said.
"There is still uncertainty, but hopefully the situation will not return to the kind of violent scenes that we have seen."
Although Mr Khan asked repeatedly to be allowed to stay at his home, the court determined that because of the security situation he would have to remain at the police guesthouse. However, the judges repeatedly emphasized that he would be allowed to have whoever he chooses as a guest.
When the proceedings finished, Mr Khan sat within the court for 15 minutes taking questions from the media. He said he had not known that people had been killed during the protests or that senior members of his party had been arrested.
He told the BBC that when he was arrested, he had been hit on the head and was bleeding and that when those images had circulated around the world the reaction by his supporters was not surprising.
When asked whether he would now ask his supporters to stop violent protests he said that he had already made his statement, saying he had always called for protests to be peaceful.
Supporters of Mr Khan welcomed the court's decision. "Imran Khan's release proves we knew the truth," one man, who had spent the past few days gathered outside the PTI leader's residence in Lahore, told the BBC.
Another said the verdict had "revived our hope in the nation".
Many analysts believe Mr Khan's election win in 2018 happened with the help of the military, which both parties denied. But he later fell out with the powerful army. After a series of defections, and amid mounting economic crisis, he lost his majority in parliament.
Since being ousted less than four years into his term, he has become one of the military's most vocal critics, and analysts say the army's popularity has fallen.
In November 2022, Mr Khan was shot in the leg while leading a protest march. He has accused a senior intelligence official of carrying out the attack - which the military has strongly denied.
A day before his arrest, the military warned him against making "baseless allegations" after he again accused a senior officer of plotting to kill him.
Observers see the country facing an unprecedented series of crises - given endless political turmoil, the economy on a cliff edge and mounting violence by Islamist militants eroding confidence in the security forces. BBC
The News adds: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday declared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's arrest "illegal" and ordered his release — a major relief for the deposed prime minister who was arrested two days back in a corruption case from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The apex court has sent the PTI chief to the Police Lines Guest House and ordered him to present himself before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) by tomorrow, the same court which declared his arrest legal, while also setting the precedence that no person will be arrested within the premises of a court.
When the authorities presented the PTI chief before the three-member bench at around 5:40pm — an hour later than ordered — the hearing resumed and there was a short exchange of words between Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and Khan and then the order was issued…
The three-member bench — headed by CJP Bandial and comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar — issued the verdict on PTI's petition challenging Khan's arrest.
The petition was filed after the capital's high court declared his arrest legal on May 9 (the day he was arrested), despite expressing dissatisfaction over the manner of the arrest.
“It is good seeing you,” CJP Bandial told Khan when he was presented before the three-member bench, and also asked him to "condemn" the violent protests that took place as a result of the arrest.
Imran tells supporters to refrain from violence
In response, the PTI chief, through the media present in the courtroom, forwarded a message to his supporters that they should refrain from damaging public and private property.
“I don’t want any loss in the country, nor do I wish for people to get incited. I just want free and fair elections,” the PTI chief told the court, pleading with the court that despite his responding to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) notices, he was arrested.
In response to the court’s question about whether he knew what was going on in Pakistan, Khan — who became the first prime minister to be ousted from office through a no-confidence vote in April last year — said his mobile phone was taken away and he was unaware about what was happening in the country.
Then the PTI chief requested the CJP to send him home, but the top judge said he was not going to do that and assured him that he would "remain at peace at the Police Lines Guest House".
"You can stay there, talk, rest, and then present yourself before the Islamabad High Court tomorrow," CJP told Khan. The CJP then directed authorities to allow Khan to meet as many as 10 people — including his lawyers, friends, and family members.
Sit with political opponents even if 'you don't like them'
The CJP then told the deposed prime minister to begin a dialogue with his opponents, which will lead to “peace” in society. “This will be a good move as you have been entrusted with the people’s rights.”
The chief justice noted that Khan should start talks with his political opponents even though he does not like them, adding that there is a need to do this as the narratives on both political ends have become “extreme”.
“230 million are awaiting for their leader to move the boat forward,” he said, also noting that the political divide has become so extreme that his friend informed him that during the ongoing protests, the next house that could be targeted could be of the CJP.
The CJP told Khan that numerous cases have been lodged against him, to which, the PTI chief said that “there aren’t many”.
CJP Bandial, without naming anyone, also told the PTI chief that “they have registered many cases against you [...] you know who I am talking about”.
Again, without naming the individual or group, the CJP said: “Even they have rendered many sacrifices.”
In the backdrop of the chaos, Khan then told the bench that a reaction was bound to happen in response to the treatment meted out to him. At this, Justice Minallah asked him not to utter such words and be cautious about what he says in the presence of the media.
Al-Qadir Trust case
The former prime minister — along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders — is facing a NAB inquiry related to a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon, which reportedly caused a loss of 190 million pounds to the national exchequer.
As per the charges, Khan and other accused allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion — 190 million pounds at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the agreement with the property tycoon.
They are also accused of getting undue benefit in the form of over 458 kanals of land at Mouza Bakrala, Sohawa, to establish Al Qadir University.
During the PTI government, United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) seized assets worth 190 million pounds from a property tycoon in Britain.
The agency said the assets would be passed to the government of Pakistan and the settlement with the Pakistani property tycoon was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt”.
Subsequently, then prime minister Khan got approval of the settlement with the UK crime agency from his cabinet on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the details of the confidential agreement.
It was decided that the money would be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.
Subsequently, Al-Qadir Trust was established in Islamabad a few weeks after the Imran-led government approved the agreement with the property tycoon.
PTI leaders Zulfi Bukhari, Babar Awan, Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, and her close friend Farah Khan were appointed as members of the trust.
Two to three months after the cabinet’s approval, the property tycoon transferred 458 canals of land to Bukhari, a close aide of the PTI chief, which he later transferred to the trust.
Later, Bukhari and Awan opted out as the trustees. That trust is now registered in the name of Khan, Bushra Bibi and Farah.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials were earlier probing the alleged misuse of powers in the process of recovery of “dirty money” received from the UK crime agency.
Following the emergence of irrefutable evidence in the case, the inquiry against Imran, Bushra Bibi, Barrister Shahzad Akbar, and a real estate tycoon was converted into the investigation.
According to the NAB officials, Khan and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to build an educational institute, in return for striking a deal to give legal cover to the property tycoon’s black money received from the UK crime agency.
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