ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan said on Saturday he was going to give a “roadmap” on how to resist the government crackdown against his party following an overnight raid on the residence of ex-Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s residence by anti-corruption and police officials.
Elahi, who dissolved the provincial legislature of Punjab on Khan’s instructions earlier this year to force the government to hold snap polls across the country, was rewarded for his loyalty when Khan appointed him as president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The PTI has also expressed its concern over the arrest of other party members in the past and accused the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of sanctioning custodial torture against them.
The hours-long raid on Elahi’s house in the eastern Lahore city was spearheaded by Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment with the help of police personnel. The former chief minister’s son, Moonis Elahi, announced on Twitter that police had reached his family’s home to arrest his father “in a case for which he got bail today.”
The still image taken from a video recorded on April 28, 2023, shows apolice armored vehicle breaking down the entrance gate of Ex-Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi's residence in Lahore, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy: @ShireenMazari1/Twitter)
This also elicited reaction from other PTI leaders.
“Strongly condemn the illegal raid on Pervez Elahi’s home with no respect to the women & family [members] present,” ex-PM Khan said in a Twitter post. “We are seeing the dismantling of democracy in [Pakistan] before our eyes.”
Khan wondered if the state had taken similar action against the Sharifs and Zardaris, now in power, who were tainted by corruption allegations, adding: “Enough is enough. Tomorrow I will give roadmap to our nation on how to stand up against this destruction of our Constitution & democracy.”
The raid in Lahore, which took place as the government and PTI teams started negotiating with each other to reach some political consensus on next elections in the country, ended when the authorities failed to find Elahi at home.
However, PTI vice president Chaudhry Fawad Hussain questioned its timing while maintaining it demonstrated that the government’s negotiating team was not taken seriously by their own people.
“On the one hand, negotiations and on the other arrests? The raid on Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s residence proves that Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafiq and Azam Tarar have no status in their government. [We] strongly condemn this raid,” he said.
The government and Khan’s party exchanged proposals to break the political impasse on general elections after the second round of talks on Friday. They also agreed to hold their next meeting next week on Tuesday.
