ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Friday a government team that arrived at its leader’s residence in Lahore with search warrants returned “fully satisfied,” though the authorities maintained the visit was only meant to discuss the overall search procedure.
Police and administrative officials from Punjab province visited the former prime minister’s Zaman Park residence after the authorities announced “30 to 40 terrorists” responsible for recent attacks on military properties were hiding in there.
Khan’s May 9 arrest in a land fraud case sparked violent protests across the country that killed at least eight people, with thousands of the opposition politician’s supporters attacking and setting fire to scores of government and public buildings, including military installations.
“The people who came to the PTI Chairman’s house with warrants have been fully satisfied, as we believe in the rule of law, so we extended full cooperation to them,” said the former prime minister’s party in a Twitter post.
Referring to a police arrest to arrest Khan earlier this year, it said: “If on March 18, when the police stormed the gate without any warrant, if they had come in a legal way, the hatred between the police and the people would not have increased, and the rule of law would have prevailed in the country.”
Punjab’s interim information minister Amir Mir said, however, the government team that visited Khan’s residence only wanted to discuss the “SOPs for house search.”
The former prime minister had recently allowed media personnel to visit his residence, though Mir noted that journalists were not permitted to enter the main building.
“The claim that the house has been fully searched remains baseless,” he added.
The provincial minister later told Geo News the “deadlock” continued over how to search Khan’s residence.
Punjab provincial authorities have already said they are not planning to arrest Khan who secured a blanket bail in different cases until the end of the month.
Khan became tangled in a slew of legal cases, a frequent hazard for opposition figures in Pakistan, since his ouster from power in a no-confidence vote in April last year.
According to his legal team, there are over a hundred cases against him.
The former prime minister has been on a warpath with the country’s powerful military since his ouster.
However, the bitterness in their relationship intensified further in the wake of the violent protests that followed his arrest on May 9.
The government and the country’s military believe the vandalism that followed was organized and planned.
Asked about his position on the issue, Khan recently told journalists: “Yes, I condemn it. There is no one in Pakistan who will not condemn the violence.”
The government’s next move remains unclear after its team with search warrants left the ex-premier’s residence.
