Ex-PM Imran Khan calls for more protests in Pakistan after arrest
4 Min Read
Khan asks his followers to hold protests "at the end of your streets and villages" and announces his return to campaigning for immediate elections.
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Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan addressing his supporters during a campaign meeting before general elections in Karachi, Pakistan, on July 4, 2018 (Reuters)
Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan urged his supporters on Saturday to keep protesting across the country just days after they clashed with security forces, triggered by his arrest.
He was freed on bail on Friday after the Supreme Court declared his arrest unlawful, which caused supporters to set government facilities on fire, block roads, and damage military property.
"Your arrest was invalid, so the whole process needs to be backtracked," Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Khan at a hearing in Islamabad on Thursday.
In a broadcast on YouTube, Khan said, "Freedom does not come easily. You have to snatch it. You have to sacrifice for it".
He asked his followers to hold protests "at the end of your streets and villages" followed by an announcement of his return to campaigning on Wednesday for immediate elections.
His arrest on Tuesday came after Khan was reprimanded for claiming senior officials had a finger in an assassination attempt against him last year.
Read next: Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan survives assassination attempt
"The army chief's actions have made our military bad. It is because of him, not because of me," Khan said in Lahore, although it was unclear whether "him" meant the current serving chief or his predecessor.
Reporters were previously told by Khan that the "one man, the army chief" was behind his arrest this week.
The army maintains its stance on denying Khan's claims and has warned against any efforts to spread "misperceptions" against the institution.
'Anti-terrorist trials'
As a result of this week's clashes, nine people have died, hundreds of police officers were wounded, and over 4,000 people were detained mainly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
According to one of Khan's lawyers, at least 10 senior officials from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been arrested since the start of the protests as current PM Shehbaz Sharif warned on Saturday that those partaking in "facilitating, abetting and perpetrating" the clashes shall be detained within 72 hours.
"Those who demonstrated anti-state behavior will be arrested and tried in anti-terrorist courts," he said in Lahore.
Khan's top aide, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Vice Chairman of the PTI party and the country's former Foreign Minister, has been arrested on May 10 in Islamabad, in the Red Zone area, after the arrest of PTI's Secretary-General Asad Umar was announced by the media. According to sources, he will be detained for 15 days.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has repeatedly promised that Khan will be rearrested, who the Islamabad High Court ruled should be given protection from arrest until Monday.
"If he gets bail from the High Court tomorrow, we will wait for the cancellation of bail and arrest him again," Sanaullah told Dunya TV.
21-year-old PTI supporter Mohsin Khan told AFP, "Everyone knows who it is. It's the military behind (Khan's arrest)," adding that he wants the military and politicians "to work together."
Technology services back up partially
After Khan's arrest, mobile services and access to social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube were cut and shut down, but as of now, they have been partially restored across the country.
Pakistan now seems prepared for a "progressively ugly showdown in the days and weeks to come," according to an editorial in the country's leading English newspaper, Dawn.
"None of the leaders, political or institutional, who are invested in this tug-of-war appear ready to take a step back," it stated.
