Pakistani authorities have accused former Prime Minister Imran Khan with terrorism for orchestrating major rallies and demonstrations in an attempt to reclaim his office.
The terrorist claims came in Khan’s address last Saturday in Islamabad, where he pledged to sue police personnel and a judge and claimed that one of his close aides was tortured following his detention.
If Khan is arrested, the Ensaf movement has threatened to hold protests across the country.
The police in Pakistan file a first information report on charges against an accused individual to a justice of the peace, which permits the investigation to proceed. Typically, the accused is subsequently arrested and interrogated by police.
The evidence of Justice of the Peace Ali Javid, who recounted being at the Islamabad gathering on Saturday and heard Khan attack the Inspector General of Pakistan Police and another judge, is included in the report against Imran Khan.
Khan faces many years in prison on fresh allegations of threatening police officers and the judge, but he has not been detained on previous, less serious charges laid on him during his current anti-government campaign.
Khan took office in 2018, pledging to end Pakistan’s dynastic rule, and the opposition accused him of economic incompetence, citing growing inflation and the devaluation of the Pakistani currency.
After months of political instability and a constitutional crisis that needed the intervention of the Supreme Court, he sealed parliament’s no-confidence vote in April, which removed Khan.
Khan alleged, without presenting evidence, that the Pakistani army was involved in a US attempt to destabilise him, which Washington, the Pakistani army, and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharifs Khalifa Khan’s administration all disputed.
Meanwhile, Khan is planning a series of huge protests to put pressure on the Sharif regime.
Shahbaz Gil, Khan’s political assistant, was detained earlier this month after appearing on the private television station ARY TV and urged troops and officers not to execute illegal instructions from the military command.
Gill was charged with treason, which is a capital offence in Pakistan, and Khan said that police assaulted him while he was in detention.
Police claim Gill has asthma and was not abused during his detention, and Khans address in Islamabad on Saturday focused mostly on Gills arrest.
Separately, police detained journalist Jamil Farooqi in Karachi on charges that the police tortured Gill.
Pakistan accuses its former prime minister of terrorism for organising protests demanding his restoration.
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