On Tuesday Islamabad Police, escorted by several units of the Punjab Police, raided PTI chief Imran Khan’s home in Lahore’s Zaman Park to arrest him. The chaotic scenes around the former premier’s residence have been broadcast live around the world, with law enforcement desperately trying to enter but being thwarted each time by diehard PTI supporters camped outside the entrance. In videos shared on social media and broadcast on television, police were seen using water cannons, firing tear gas, and charging at PTI supporters with batons in an attempt to disperse them. Hundreds of protesters have refused to leave, retaliating with sticks and stones at law enforcement, which now includes the Punjab Rangers. At least 54 police officers, including Islamabad DIG Operations Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari, have been injured in the unrest, according to officials. So, how difficult is it to apprehend just one person? And why is the PTI attempting to keep him from being arrested? As usual, Pakistani Twitter has its own theories.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed a petition seeking the cancellation of Imran’s arrest warrants in the Toshakhana case. The petition was filed after police and PTI workers clashed outside Zaman Park the day before. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq accepted the petition. After reserving the verdict earlier in the day, the court announced it and directed Imran to submit the undertaking, in which he stated he would appear in court on March 18, to the trial court. The IHC ruled that the trial court should rule on Imran’s undertaking in accordance with the law, and it upheld the trial court’s decision in the case.
Lawyer Reema Omer tweeted that “Imran Khan’s not appearing in court and repeatedly evading arrest” had no moral or legal justification. She went on to say that the PTI leader’s actions were yet another attempt to create a “state within a state” that could lead to civil war in the country. However, not everyone agreed with her. When journalist Atika Rehman said she’d lost count of the number of times the state had tried and failed to arrest Imran, she spoke for everyone.
Meanwhile, journalist Mubashir Zaidi tweeted that the PTI chief had squandered an opportunity to establish himself as a politician by failing to come out and present himself for arrest. “Political leaders must lead from the front, rather than acting as human shields like cult leaders,” he wrote. On the other hand, journalist Sahar Habib Ghazi expressed surprise at journalists and analysts who “largely ignore or minimize Khan’s concern that he’ll be killed in custody — his reason for not giving himself up for arrest”.
“Pakistani politics has returned to the 1990s: divided, hateful, vengeful, driven by vendettas and rhetoric, serving the most powerful who have turned land, housing societies, and private industries into untaxed cash cows,” she wrote. Anchorperson Kamran Khan also termed the strategy to arrest Imran “utterly stupid”. He added that law enforcers’ actions were providing Imran with “non-stop coverage [from] Lahore to Los Angeles”. Journalist Zarrar Khuhro suggested that the police action proved that “clear grounds [were] being manufactured for delaying elections”. “If elections are delayed beyond constitutionally mandated limits, as decided by the Supreme Court, you will have no right to speak of parliament, the legislative process, or condemn violations of that process in the future,” he warned. Arifa Noor, an anchor and columnist, called it “our collective failure” that there have been so many incidents in which the “state faces its own people in a violent showdown.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Asad Rahim took issue with some commentators’ use of the term “human shields” for PTI supporters. “Given how neo-Nazi hackers use the term ‘human shields’ to justify state violence against defenseless civilians — often in war zones — the usual suspects in Pakistan may want to think twice before using language that reveals too much about themselves.”
