Pakistan ex-PM Khan in court as rights watchdog issues warning
Embattled Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan returned to court on Wednesday, as the nation’s human rights watchdog warned all sides are to blame in a rapidly deteriorating democratic crisis.
Khan’s brief arrest earlier this month sparked days of deadly unrest before Islamabad orchestrated a crackdown on his party, including mass arrests and a pledge to try some protesters in army courts.
The Islamabad High Court and a specialist corruption court granted Khan bail on Wednesday in the same graft case which prompted his arrest on May 9, his lawyers said.
Thousands, including grassroots supporters and key Khan aides, have been rounded up since the Supreme Court declared that detention illegal and allowed him to walk free.
Islamabad says the arrests are justified because it was targeted by anti-state terrorism, while Khan claims his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is being quashed ahead of elections due by October.
But Hina Jilani, the head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), issued a stark warning to “all political stakeholders”.
“Unless they desist from any further measures that could imperil the country’s fragile democracy, they may find themselves unable to steer the country safely through the multiple crises it is facing.”
Since he was ousted from office in a no-confidence vote last spring, Khan has waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, which analysts say was behind his rise and fall from power.
His arrest was widely seen as payback ordered by top brass after he repeated incendiary allegations that they plotted an assassination attempt against him.
The HRCP said “civilian supremacy has emerged as the greatest casualty” from the deepening political crisis, which comes as Pakistan suffers from a flatlining economy and worsening security situation.
“The government’s inability -- or unwillingness -- to safeguard civilian supremacy” and PTI’s “incessant humiliation of law... has led to making military interference in politics inevitable”, Jilani said.
Also on Wednesday, nine more members of PTI were arrested and handed over to the Pakistan army to be tried under the stringent Pakistan Army Act over their alleged role in the May 9 attacks on sensitive military installations.
With these arrests, the number of PTI activists to be tried under the Army Act and the Official Secrets Act has exceeded 50.
“On the orders of the antiterrorism courts, nine suspects belonging to PTI and involved in the attack on the ISI buildings (in Faisalabad) and military installations in Multan Cantonment were handed to the Pakistan Army on Wednesday for their trial under the Army Act and Official Secrets Act,” a court official said.