ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif said on Friday people who indulged in violent protests after former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest and torched military installations would have the right to appeal the verdict after being tried in military courts.
The minister’s statement was quoted by the state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency after he gave interview to a Middle Eastern news channel.
Asif said some of the top political leaders in the country had faced incarcerations in the past, but their party supporters and activists had refrained from extreme violence.
“Such actions are tantamount to waging a war against Pakistan,” the APP quoted him as saying in an interview with Al Jazeera. “Those who attacked military installations, military bases and residences of military personnel, their trials will be held under military courts according to the procedure given in the constitution.”
He added that those who were tried by the military authorities would still “have the right to appeal to the high courts and the Supreme Court.”
“My leader [Nawaz Sharif] and many people of my political party were arrested, but we never did politics of violence,” he continued. “We have never attacked military and civilian installations on arrests.”
Asif acknowledged there were political difference between the government and ex-PM Khan’s party.
“But that does not mean that government and public properties should be attacked,” he added.
The former prime minister was arrested on corruption charges from a court in Islamabad on May 9. Within the next few hours, protests broke out in different parts of the country, with people carrying Khan’s party flags storming government building, including military properties, and setting them alight.
The government and the country’s powerful army believe the demonstrations were planned and organized.
Khan and his top party leaders have condemned the vandalism, though they continue to face a tough political situation.
