Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has slammed Pakistan's Army Chief General Asim Munir and blamed him for his "abduction" after a court in Pakistan released him and barred his re-arrest until Monday. After locking himself in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises for hours in fear of re-arrest despite being granted bail on Friday, Khan triumphantly returned to his Lahore home on Saturday (May 13).
Before departing for Lahore, the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief lashed out at the "imported government for kidnapping" him, despite the fact that the IHC had granted him bail in all cases, news agency PTI reported. "They kidnapped me and forced me to stay here. I want to tell the entire nation that it is their bad intention, that they want to do something else, and that the entire nation should prepare to protest," he added further.
After nearly 11 hours on the IHC grounds, the ex-premier, dressed in a sky blue shalwar kameez and a dark blue waistcoat, finally left the federal capital without addressing the charged PTI workers who had remained on the streets all day.
This comes after he was granted protective bail for 2 weeks by the Islamabad High Court in a corruption case. The court also barred authorities from arresting Khan in any case registered anywhere in the country until Monday. Three different benches of the IHC granted relief to the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief who was escorted to the court amid tight security. The bench also ordered the authorities to provide 'foolproof security' to Khan.
The IHC's decision to grant Khan a two-week reprieve from arrest came hours after he warned of countrywide unrest if he was arrested again. The hearing was delayed for nearly two hours due to security reasons.
Dawn News reported that Khan's lawyers had filed four additional requests which urged the IHC to club all the cases against the PTI chief and to direct authorities to provide details of the cases registered against him. Khan was arrested after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) issued an arrest warrant against him.
The Al-Qadir Trust corruption case is about the setting up of Al-Qadir University for Sufism in the 2019 Sohawa area of Jhelum district of Punjab. Khan is accused of looting Rs 50 billion from the national treasury in the case.
The former prime minister, along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders, is facing a NAB inquiry related to a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon.
The arrest of Khan on Tuesday by the Pakistan Rangers at the IHC premises in a corruption case triggered unrest in Pakistan that continued till Friday in which scores of people were killed and dozens of military and state installations were destroyed by the protesters. For the first time in Pakistan's history, the protesters stormed into the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also torched a corps commander's house in Lahore. Police put the death toll in violent clashes to 10 while Khan's party claims 40 of its workers lost their lives in the firing by security personnel.
Khan is facing over 120 cases across the country, including for allegedly committing treason and blasphemy and inciting violence and terrorism. He was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.
He is the only Pakistani prime minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.