ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi will begin former prime minister Imran Khan and his deputy, Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s trial today, Tuesday, in a case relating to violent demonstrations by his supporters over his brief arrest in May last year, Khan’s party said late Monday.
Khan was arrested briefly on May 9, 2023, in a graft case that saw hundreds of his supporters pour into the streets across the country, ransacking military installations and government buildings. Thousands were arrested in the aftermath as the military and the government vowed to bring both the perpetrators and instigators of the violence to justice.
In a hearing late last month, the Rawalpindi court had set Feb. 6 as the date for Khan and Qureshi’s indictment in the May 9 riots case. The former prime minister has been in jail since August 2023 on graft charges. Khan says the allegations against him are politically motivated and designed to keep him and his party away from national elections due on Feb. 8.
“Anti-Terrorist Court Rawalpindi to start trial of May 9 incident tomorrow within Adiala prison premises,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said late Monday.
Khan, 71, was ousted in 2022 after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military leaders who many say backed him into power in 2018. In opposition, he waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military establishment which has directly ruled the South Asian nation for nearly half of its history.
Khan accuses the military of engineering his removal from office, an allegation Pakistan’s powerful army has strongly denied repeatedly.
Last week, the former premier was handed three separate jail sentences of 10, 14 and 7 years in three different cases. His deputy, Qureshi, was also sentenced along with Khan in a case in which the two are charged with leaking the contents of a secret diplomatic cable to unauthorized individuals. Numerous PTI candidates are behind bars or on the run from criminal and terrorism charges in separate cases.
Khan’s legal troubles have worsened days before over 120 million people in Pakistan will head to polling booths nationwide to vote in the general elections.