Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Ex-Chief, Is Arrested

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested on Tuesday in a serious escalation of a political disaster that has pitted the present authorities towards Mr. Khan since he was ousted from workplace final 12 months and that now raises the prospect of mass unrest.

Mr. Khan was at a courtroom listening to in Islamabad when he was arrested by paramilitary troops, a day after the Pakistani army issued a powerful assertion towards the previous chief accusing him of constructing false accusations towards a senior intelligence official.

Mr. Khan, who was faraway from workplace in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April final 12 months, is dealing with dozens of courtroom circumstances on expenses that embody terrorism and corruption.

The arrest immediately intensified a showdown between the federal government and Mr. Khan, a populist former cricket star, who has staged a political comeback within the months since his removing from workplace. His social gathering has drawn tens of 1000’s to political rallies throughout the nation, at which Mr. Khan and others have known as for recent elections and accused Pakistan’s highly effective army institution of orchestrating his ouster.

On the identical time, the state has introduced dozens of courtroom circumstances towards Mr. Khan. He and his supporters have characterised the accusations as a misuse of the justice system by the federal government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and by the army to sideline him from politics. Pakistani political and army leaders have repeatedly denied these claims.

The political tensions surrounding Mr. Khan got here to a head in November, when the previous prime minister was wounded throughout a political rally after an unidentified man opened hearth on his convoy, in what aides have known as an assassination try. Since then, Mr. Khan has been principally ensconced at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest metropolis, and has refused to look in courtroom in Islamabad, the capital.

Fawad Chaudhry, a prime aide to Mr. Khan, mentioned that the menace to Mr. Khan’s life made courtroom appearances a lot riskier, including: “It’s not humanly attainable to make courtroom appearances in such an unlimited variety of circumstances.”

The drama surrounding Mr. Khan appears solely to have buoyed his recognition, analysts say, underscoring his distinctive means to outmaneuver Pakistan’s typical playbook for sidelining political leaders who’ve fallen out of favor with the nation’s highly effective army.

Over the summer time, his social gathering, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., received sweeping victories in native elections in Punjab — a province that has typically served as a bellwether for nationwide politics — and within the port metropolis of Karachi.

These political victories had been additionally seen as a response to worsening financial circumstances that the brand new authorities has struggled to deal with, and as a repudiation of the army institution, which has lengthy wielded a heavy hand in Pakistani politics.

However they’ve prompted a rising crackdown on Mr. Khan and his supporters that many view as a coordinated effort by the authorities to dampen his political prospects.

Journalists identified to be sympathetic to Mr. Khan say they’ve been harassed by the authorities. Reside broadcasts of Mr. Khan’s speeches have been banned from information tv channels. A mainstream channel, ARY Information, was pressured off the air after airing an interview with one in all Mr. Khan’s prime aides through which he made anti-military remarks.

The disaster has flipped the script for Mr. Khan, who benefited from an in depth relationship with the army when he was elected prime minister in 2018. On the time, his political rivals claimed that the authorities had waged a marketing campaign of coercion and intimidation that deterred any opposition to Mr. Khan and ensured his electoral success.

Army officers have denied these accusations and maintained that the establishment has adopted a “impartial” place within the present political disaster. The army appeared to withdraw their assist for Mr. Khan at first of final 12 months, after which lawmakers in Parliament eliminated him with the no-confidence vote.

Since then, Mr. Khan’s accusations that the army was colluding towards him have grown more and more harsh and direct — a rarity in Pakistan’s political system, the place the army wields an intimidating affect.

Nonetheless, Mr. Khan has retained widespread recognition — an indication that the authorities’ conventional strategies for sidelining political leaders might not be sufficient to silence a populist politician within the period of social media, analysts say.

Now, many worry Mr. Khan’s arrest will additional escalate the political turmoil that has embroiled the nation in current months. Earlier than Mr. Khan was detained, his aides warned that doing so would set off mass unrest that might convey Pakistan to a standstill.