Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was remanded in custody on Wednesday for a corruption case, the day after his arrest which sparked riots prompting the dispatch of soldiers to Punjab.
The ex-prime minister, who hopes to return to power and is pressuring the government to hold early elections before October, has been remanded in custody for eight days, one of his lawyers Ali said on Wednesday. Bukhari after a closed hearing.
Mr Khan was appearing in a corruption case before a special court convened at police headquarters around which large security forces had been deployed.
According to Sher Afzal Marwat, a lawyer for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mr Khan’s party, he is “in good spirits”, but was hit in the back of the head and in the leg by the paramilitary forces who arrested him on Tuesday.
Violent clashes erupted between PTI supporters and the police following the announcement of the arrest of the former prime minister.
At least six people have died in incidents linked to the protests, police and hospitals said on Wednesday.
The government has given the green light for the dispatch of soldiers to the province of Punjab, the most populous in the country, where nearly 1,000 demonstrators have been arrested and 130 police officers injured since the start of the demonstrations.
The order issued by the Interior Ministry does not specify the date or duration of the deployment requested by the provincial government, nor the number of soldiers.
Protesters set fire to the residence of the military commander of Lahore and blocked the entrance gates to the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
In a statement, the army warned of a “strong reaction” against those who attack military and state installations.
Schools were closed across the country on Wednesday and access to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook restricted by authorities. By noon, protesters had blocked some roads leading to Islamabad.
“If they think the arrest of Imran Khan will demoralize us, they are seriously mistaken,” said one of his supporters, Niaz Ali, in Peshawar, where several monuments and government buildings have been set on fire. “We stand with Imran Khan and we will support him until death,” he continued.
“illegitimate affair”
Imran Khan was removed from his position as head of government in April 2022, after losing the support of the army and the vote of a vote of no confidence against him.
After his fall, Mr. Khan, 70, the target of several dozen court cases and whose relations with the military institution have only deteriorated, pressed for the organization of early elections before the date October deadline, hoping to return to power. In vain.
The ex-prime minister, who came to power with the support of the army in 2018 before falling out with the military hierarchy, accused a senior officer this weekend of having plotted to assassinate him in November during a a meeting, during which he was shot in the leg.
“These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” the army replied in a statement on Monday, saying that “this noisy propaganda” was aimed at “promoting political objectives”.
Officially, the attack is the work of a lone gunman who, according to a video released by the police, confessed to being the author and who is incarcerated, but this theory is rejected by Mr. Khan.
Criticism of the military is rare in Pakistan, where its leaders wield considerable political influence. She has staged at least three coups since independence in 1947, ruling for more than 30 years.
“My (dear) Pakistanis, by the time these words reach you, I will have been arrested in connection with an illegitimate matter,” Khan said in a pre-recorded video on Tuesday, anticipating his arrest.
Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told a news conference there was “no political vendetta” surrounding Mr Khan’s arrest.
The case that led to his detention was brought by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s top anti-corruption body, which said the former cricketer ignored repeated court summonses.