ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Pakistan Tuesday arrested former prime minister Imran Khan, the leader of the largest national political party, outside a court in the capital, Islamabad.
The 70-year-old politician was taken into custody while moving towards a high courtroom to attend a hearing on the dozens of cases against him ranging from alleged terrorism, and corruption, to treason and other criminal offenses.
Khan’s attorneys alleged that paramilitary forces had physically assaulted him before taking him into custody and handing him over to anti-graft authorities accompanying them.
Khan’s party denounced their leader’s arrest.
“State terrorism – breaking into IHC (Islamabad High Court) premises to abduct Imran Khan from court premises. Law of the jungle in operation. Rangers beat the lawyers, used violence on Imran Khan and abducted him,” tweeted Shireen Mazari, a close aide to the opposing leader, with a purported video of security action.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah confirmed Khan’s arrest, rejecting charges of any physical assault and telling local media about a corruption case against the opposition politician.
In a rare first foreign reaction, the German ambassador in Pakistan said he was “concerned about pictures circulating” of Khan’s arrest.
“Crucial to ensure highest standards of the rule of law in judicial cases & avoid over-exaggeration,” Alfred Grannas wrote on Twitter. “To all: Stay calm on all sides for the sake of #Pakistan & prioritize dialogue to work towards progress together!” the ambassador added.
Concerned about pictures circulating of @ImranKhanPTI ‘s arrest today. Crucial to ensure highest standards of rule of law in judicial cases & avoid overexaggeration.
To all: Stay calm on all sides for the sake of #Pakistan & prioritize dialogue to work towards progress together!— Alfred Grannas (@GermanyinPAK) May 9, 2023
Adam Weinstein, a researcher at Washington’s Quincy Institute, said, “The arrest of Imran Khan takes an already escalating political firestorm & douses it with petrol as the nation inches off an economic cliff.”
“It will harden negative views toward the military & PDM and unleash chaos in the streets. But it is also a blow to IK,” he wrote on Twitter.
The arrest came just hours after Khan renewed his allegations with new details of how a senior general within the Pakistani military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, is plotting to kill him.
The opposition leader warned such an eventuality could plunge the South Asian nation of about 220 million people into a turmoil worse than Sri Lanka’s recently experienced.
The head of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party made the claims in a video statement a day after the powerful military warned Khan against making what it condemned as “fabricated and malicious” allegations.
Khan was injured in an assassination attempt last November while leading an anti-government protest march near Lahore, the capital of the most populous Punjab province. The attack killed one person, while the PTI chief received bullet wounds in his legs.
Khan identified ISI’s Major-General Faisal Naseer as one of the planners of the assassination attempt on him.
Government officials have said the assassination attempt was the work of a lone gunman, who is now in custody and confessed in a video controversially leaked to the media.
Former prime minister Khan was removed from office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022, a move he rejected as illegal and orchestrated by the now-retired chief of the Pakistani military, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
His arrest is likely to worsen political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country.
Pakistan is mired in an economic and political crisis, with the Khan-led PTI pressuring Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s embattled coalition government to hold early elections.