ISLAMABAD: Joint investigation teams set up to probe street violence following the brief arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in May have declared over 900 people, including the ex-premier and other senior members of his party, prime suspects in a dozen cases and on Thursday submitted charge sheets against a number of the accused in an anti-terror court, police said.
Khan was arrested briefly on May 9 in a graft case that saw hundreds of his supporters pour into the streets across the country, ransacking military and other properties. Thousands were arrested in the aftermath as the military and the government said both the perpetrators and instigators of the violence would be brought to justice. Khan is now in jail serving a three-year sentence in a separate corruption case.
DIG Operations Imran Kishwar told media Khan and over 900 other leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party as well as activists nominated in May 9 cases had been “declared guilty of serious offenses.”
“We have declared them prime accused in 12 out of the total 14 cases registered under the anti-terrorism act and other charges at Lahore’s various police stations… [and] challans [charge sheets] have been submitted in the ATC,” he said.
Among those against whom there was “sufficient evidence” were Khan, former Punjab governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, former provincial ministers Mian Mehmoodur Rashid and former health minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid. Fashion designer and Khan supporter Khadija Shah, PTI activist Sanam Javed, and other followers of the ex-PM were also nominated in the cases, Kishwar said.
Evidence against them was based on reports received from the national electronic media regulator, the Federal Investigation Agency, and military authorities, the official added.
Digital and photogrammetric evidence as well as voice messages of the suspects “confirmed the allegations” leveled against them in over a dozen cases lodged at different police stations in Lahore, Kishwar said.
On Thursday, the prosecution submitted challans in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) against leaders and hundreds of supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party for being “guilty” of multiple charges in cases involving the May 9 riots, including an attack on the corps commander’s residence in Lahore.
Special Prosecutor Syed Farhad Ali Shah told Dawn challans had been filed of suspects interrogated by the police, presented before a trial court, and subsequently sent on judicial remand in the cases. The investigation against Khan, he said, was “still incomplete” as he had not been taken into physical remand in any of the May 9 cases, nor had the court summoned him yet due to his arrest in other cases.
In the challans filed before the court, the prosecution alleged the violent protests were part of a planned conspiracy against the state: “400 pieces of video evidence, including speeches of the PTI chairman, proved that the attacks on military installations and premises in cantonment areas were pre-planned.”
Charges of mutiny and waging war against the state have been included in all cases and reports from the FIA and intelligence agencies have also been attached to the challans. As many as 368 suspects, including party leaders, have been challaned in the attack on the corp commanders residence alone.
The then government of PM Shehbaz Sharif had called in the army to help end deadly unrest in the wake of the arrest of Khan in a land fraud case, after his supporters stormed military buildings and other private and public properties.
The 70-year-old former cricket star has been at the center of a political crisis since he was ousted in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022. The worst economic conditions in Pakistan in decades have compounded the crisis.
Khan was imprisoned on Aug. 5 after being sentenced to three years jail for being guilty of ‘corrupt practices’ in the sale of state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
The conviction has also barred him from contesting elections for five years.
