The case concerns misappropriation of GBP 190 million repatriated by the UK after confiscation of shady properties and bank accounts held in that country by realty baron Malik Riaz.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested by paramilitary troops on Tuesday during a court appearance in Islamabad over corruption allegations, senior leaders from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said.
Khan had been present at the court for two hearings when the arrest took place.
Television channels aired footage of Khan submitting his biometric data for the court appearance when paramilitary forces broke windows to get to him before apprehending him.
In the footage, paramilitary Rangers are seen piling out of cars and holding batons before the arrest.
Witnesses said shortly after Khan entered through the gate of the Islamabad high court, contingents of Rangers and armoured personnel carriers entered after him.
Footage on local media showed Khan being escorted to a Rangers vehicle and taken to an unknown location.
Khan’s party claimed the leader was arrested “violently” by Rangers and was injured.
Khan’s lawyer Ali Gohar, the former Prime Minister was hit on his head and his bullet-injured leg during the arrest.
Akbar Nasir Khan, a top police official in Islamabad, said Khan was arrested in a case related to one Al-Qadir Trust.
According to media reports, Al-Qadir University Project Trust was formed by Khan, Bushra Bibi and two senior leaders of Khan’s Pakistsan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Tehsil Sohawa of District Jhelum, Punjab.
The land for the project was donated by Malik Riaz, and it has been alleged that it was a quick pro quo for returning the real estate baron the GBP 190 million repatriated to Pakistan by the UK’s National Crime Agency, which came from confiscated properties owned by Malik and his family.
The anti-graft National Accountability (NAB) had issued an arrest warrant for Khan on May 1 in relation to the case, Nasir Khan said.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Khan’s PTI party, said the 72-year-old was arrested on the premises of the court by agents from the NAB.
Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote last year and has since led a popular campaign against the current government, accusing it of colluding with the military to remove him from office.
The cricket legend-turned-politician has accused authorities of attempting to arrest him to remove him from the politics ahead of a general election scheduled for October.
Chaudhry later tweeted that the Islamabad High Court complex was “occupied” by the Rangers and that lawyers were “being subjected to torture”.
In a tweet, party PTI said the rangers have “abducted” Khan. “Pakistan’s brave people must come out and defend their country,” the party posted.
Media reports suggest the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court has ordered government officials to appear before the court over Khan’s arrest.
Earlier, in video statement recorded at Lahore in the morning before Khan left for Islamabad, Khan told his followers he may not get a chance to address them again. “By the time my words reach you, I will have been locked up in an illegal case”, he said.
In the remarks that clearly suggest Khan had an inkling that his arrest is imminent, the firebrand leader said this should make one thing clear to everyone that fundamental rights, constitutional rights and democracy have been buried in Pakistan.
His remarks were a rejoinder to the military’s overnight statement challenging him to prove his allegations against a serving military officer or desist from making baseless and malicious allegations to further his political agenda.
He said the Pakistani nation has known him for 50 years, so he has no need to tell lies, and asserted that he has always tried to wage his struggle within the right of peaceful protest given in the constitution.
He also accentuated that his expected arrest comes not because he has broken a law but because “they” want me to withdraw from the real freedom movement.
He also took this opportunity to badmouth his political foes as “thieves” and “imported government” one more time.
While he was in power, Khan led a concerted campaign of persecution against Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership in the name of corruption, although no corruption allegation could stand scrutiny of a court of law.
“I appeal to everyone today that everyone has to come out for their rights and real freedom”, the disgraced leader said in an impassioned appeal. “No nation is ever given freedom on a platter. [You] have to fight and fight for freedom”.
In remarks clearly designed to stir public agitation by his party cadres, he urged his workers to take to the streets to wage their struggle for freedom, which demands hard work.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
