ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan has been booked in six new cases relating to last week’s protests in Islamabad, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Monday, adding to legal woes of the incarcerated premier.
Khan’s PTI led supporters to Islamabad from Peshawar and other cities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on November 24, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from prison.
The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed three paramilitary soldiers and a police officer, and injured hundreds of others. The PTI has named 12 people who it says were killed during the crackdown.
On Monday, the PTI said the Rawalpindi police sought physical remand of the former premier in cases relating to last week’s protests, but a court ordered his judicial custody till the moving of bail applications in all the cases.
“Imran Khan’s counsels Barrister Salman Safdar, Salman Akram Raja, Usman Riaz Gill and PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, along with his family members, will meet him today,” the PTI said in a statement.
Separately, PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was brought from Lahore to Adiyala jail in Rawalpindi to be presented before a judge in a case relating to violent protests in the country by PTI supporters on May 9, 2023, according to Khan’s party.
“After being handed over to jail authorities, we are hopeful his meetings with his legal team and party leaders will resume accordingly,” it added.
Both Khan and Qureshi have been in jail since August last year and entangled in a slew of legal cases, which they say were politically motivated to keep the party out of power.
The PTI party has staged several protests this year to demand the release of Khan and to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election, which it says were manipulated to favor its opponents. The Pakistani government and election authorities deny this.
Last week’s protests were by far the largest to grip the capital since the poll and the Pakistani government said they caused Rs192 billion per day indirect losses to the economy.
Ex-PM Khan booked in six new cases relating to Islamabad protests — party
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Ex-PM Khan booked in six new cases relating to Islamabad protests — party
- The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed three paramilitary soldiers and a policeman
- Khan’s party has held several protests this year to demand his release from prison and to challenge Feb. 8 poll results
Pakistan’s president condemns Kabul blast, accuses Taliban of allowing militant ‘safe havens’
- President Zardari links attack on Chinese-run restaurant to Kabul’s failure to meet Doha commitments
- He highlights the ‘failure’ of Afghanistan’s Taliban to establish a ‘broad-based and inclusive government’
KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday condemned a blast that ripped through a Chinese-run restaurant in Kabul, killing at least seven people, while criticizing Afghanistan’s Taliban administration for allowing “safe havens” to militant groups to export extremist violence in the region.
The explosion struck the restaurant in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw commercial district, an area considered one of the safest in the Afghan capital, killing one Chinese national and six Afghans and wounding several others, including a child, according to Afghan authorities.
The Afghan affiliate of Daesh militant group claimed responsibility, saying the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
“The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has failed to honor the commitments made under the Doha Peace Agreement, particularly the obligation to prevent the use of Afghan soil for the export of terrorism,” Zardari said in a statement circulated by his office.
“Pakistan has repeatedly stressed that no terrorist groups should be allowed safe havens in Afghanistan and that regional peace and security must be upheld,” he continued, adding that “it is not just Pakistan but other neighbors of Afghanistan, including Tajikistan, [that] have recently been affected by the terrorists operating out of Afghan soil.”
Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan of sheltering proscribed armed factions such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Balochistan Liberation Army, and of facilitating attacks on Pakistani civilians and security forces, allegations the Taliban deny.
The two countries witnessed major border skirmishes in October last year, followed by talks mediated by Qatar and Türkiye.
Pakistan subsequently closed its border and suspended bilateral and transit trade with Afghanistan, a move that led to a 17% drop in “cross-border attacks,” according to the Center for Research and Security Studies.
Late November also saw a series of deadly incidents along the Tajikistan–Afghanistan border, with militants on the Afghan side firing across the frontier into Tajikistan, killing five Chinese workers employed on Chinese–Tajik mining and construction projects.
In December, Tajik border forces clashed with armed individuals who crossed from Afghanistan, killing several assailants but losing a border guard in the fighting.
Zardari paid tribute to Chinese nationals working in Afghanistan “despite rising insecurity” and expressed solidarity with the victims and their families, while reiterating calls for political reform in Kabul.
“The failure to establish a broad based and inclusive government by the Taliban is contrary to the Doha Agreement,” he said in the statement.
