In a shocking incident, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) and former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested for corruption charges on Tuesday.Sparking strong opposition from voters and supporters across the country. In the Al Qadir Trust case, Khan was arrested by the Pakistani Rangers at the Islamabad High Court (IHC), where he went for trial. Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lt-Gen (Retd) Nazir Ahmad Butt issued Imran’s arrest warrant on 01 May and he was arrested under sections 9-A, 34-A, 18-A and 24-A of the NAB Ordinance 1999.
Imran Khan is undoubtedly a popular leader and can understand the feelings of his party staff and supporters, but there is no reason to justify the violence that took place in several cities following his arrest. The main reason behind that some PTI leaders describe the arrest as “illegal” , “kidnapping”, “attack on the judiciary” and allegations of “torture” when arrested.
Board leaders such as Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Omar, Hamad Azhar, Fawad Chaudhry, Faisal Javed, Faroukh Habib, Ali Zaidi, and Dr. Yasmin Rashid called this development “unacceptable” and called the workers to strike everywhere. In many places the scenes result in the deaths of two innocent people, the injury of protesters and police personnel, and extensive harm to public and private individuals.
Peaceful protests are not limited and the PTI has the right to voice its grievances, but distortions of the facts and generalizations of the situation should be avoided in any case because it does no one any good. Those who provoked workers to protest and demolish military buildings in Rawalpindi and Lahore did not help the party because this attack was a first in the country’s history. Previously, some statements of the party leadership were seen as attempts to create a wedge between the defence forces and the people of Pakistan. In the past, politicians of all kinds have been regularly arrested on false and truthful charges, but no one has resorted to violence, taking legal action available to the PTI.
The arrest immediately caught the attention of the CJ of the Islamabad High Court, who was enraged and demanded that senior government officials appear in court within fifteen minutes and explain the background of the construction. He refused to delay the trial for fifteen minutes and even told him to worry the PM (who had left the country for the big day) and other members of the committee at the full truth of the case and the circumstances that led to it. It is known to be held.
However, the notice taken by the Chief Justice of IHC conveyed a clear message that the PTI has a strong forum to agitate its concerns and grievances and that instead of taking the law into one’s own hands, one should knock at the doors of justice. It is also interesting that the court also decided that there was nothing wrong with the arrest and found it lawful. The PTI says its leader was inadvertently arrested, but the proper forum for fighting any crime is the courts, not the streets, which the party has always chosen to make sensitive. Contrary to the claims of both parties, NAB, in its statement, clarified the whole situation, including the illegal land acquisition and the construction of Al-Qadir University in the case, including the illegal interest in the return of proceeds £190 million went through the UK’s Criminal Investigation Department.
He added that the arrest was made after the search and investigation process was completed, and that during the investigation, many calls were made to the former Prime Minister and his wife, and none of them responded.
This shows that NAB has no choice but to issue an arrest warrant to complete the corruption case. PTI has always claimed to be an advocate of the rule of law, which means that all people are equal before the law and should therefore remove itself from the court. It should prove innocence before the courts of law instead of using pressure tactics to get relief.
