In the past week, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his PTI supporters turned the entire country on its head. After months of back and forth between Khan and the Pakistan Army, filled with harsh allegations and scandals, Khan was arrested by Pakistani Rangers on Tuesday.
However, in an equally dramatic turn of events, Pakistan’s Supreme Court declared Khan’s arrest ‘unlawful’ on Thursday and ordered the ‘immediate release’ of the PTI chief.
Khan’s dramatic arrest from Islamabad High Court shocked the world, with leaders such as UK MP Jeremy Corbyn calling the arrest ‘a dark day for democracy’, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for the ‘rule of law’ in the country.
This is why Imran Khan’s ‘unjust’ arrest and his subsequent release is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The once blue-eyed boy of the army has now become the institution’s biggest threat. From founding PTI to becoming the Prime Minister in 2018 by a negligible majority to his ouster in 2022, Khan’s political journey since 1996 has been tainted by scandals and a shifting relationship with the Pakistan Army.
Army darling to its biggest headache
The early years of Khan’s political career in the 1990s focused on Islamic values, liberal economics, the establishment of an independent judiciary in Pakistan, and ironically, the implementation of anti-corruption laws in the country, among others.
Despite his focus on liberal values, Khan was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of General Pervez Musharraf’s coup in 1999. The former PM once said, “I believed this was a man who could set our country straight, end corruption, clear out the political mafias,” adding that he was even offered the job of Prime Minister, which he declined.
However, Khan soon rejected Musharraf after a rigged referendum in 2002. Such U-turns became typical in Khan’s swerving style of political ideas and affiliations during this era, reminding one of a pendulum oscillating between institutions and ideologies. It shaped his early years of unsuccessful politics, with PTI losing both the 1997 and 2002 general elections.
Najam Sethi, editor of the liberal Daily Times, once described Khan as ‘riddled with contradictions.’ “He is essentially a do-gooder but has these half-baked ideas, the sort you would pick up in an airport,” Sethi said.
However, his political career grew immensely after 2007, when he became one of the leading faces opposing General Musharraf. Eventually, in the 2013 general elections, his PTI became the second-largest political party in the country, leading the opposition in Punjab and Sindh.
As an opposition leader, Khan believed dialogue could help stop the Pakistan Taliban’s terrorist activities and in 2014 led protesters into storming PM Nawaz Sharif’s residence on allegations of electoral fraud, urging them to ‘take the law into their own hands.’
Ultimately, in 2018, Khan won the elections by a negligible majority, becoming the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan. Ironically, Khan, who made his career opposing electoral fraud and stated in 2005 that he would only want to be PM if he had a ‘clear majority’, was accused of ‘rigging’ the elections. Numerous opposition leaders accused the military of ‘rigging’ the elections in Khan’s favour.
From the leader of the fight against General Musharraf’s suppression, Imran Khan once again became a blue-eyed boy of the Army, stating that his government, all political parties, institutions, and the army were on ‘one page.’
However, this relationship did not remain rosy for too long, as things visibly began to sour between Khan and the Army over issues such as mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic and corruption, among others. Khan transformed from being a rose planted by the Pakistan Army in its garden to becoming its most unwieldy thorn.
This change in dynamics was most evident when he retracted a proposed 3-month extension to Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and subsequently attacked the general after his retirement, over the Kashmir issue and relations with India.
Khan had previously stated in 2005, “I have enemies in Pakistan,” a sentiment he continues to reiterate even today, constantly targeting the Pakistan Army, including Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer General Faisal Naseer, for attempting to kill him twice in the past year.
In addition to accusing them of attempting to assassinate him, Khan also alleges that the army, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), as well as opposition leaders, have levied false charges against him.
Also read: Imran Khan’s arrest in Pakistan proof the Army has won. But silencing him won’t help govt
Controversies and scandals
Khan faces approximately 121 cases across Pakistan, on charges ranging from corruption, committing treason, and blasphemy to inciting violence and terrorism. These cases include 31 registered in Islamabad, 12 cases of terrorism in Lahore, and 14 cases in Faisalabad, among others.
Among these cases, some notable ones include the Toshakhana case, where Khan is accused of hiding money from sale of state gifts, for which he was indicted on Wednesday. Other cases involve the Al-Qadir trust, the Tyrian White case, alleged misuse of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s helicopters, and PTI receiving foreign funding in 2012, among several others.
Apart from criminal cases, Khan has been the centre of numerous controversies, including audio leaks of his alleged conversations about foreign funding and ‘US conspiracy’, as well as calls with former National Assembly member Ayla Malik and more recently with PTI leader Musarrat Jamshed Cheema.
Despite these cases, Khan is confident that if allowed to run in the next elections in Pakistan, he will surely return to power.
In 2005, Khan told The Guardian, “I still say that if there was a presidential election in Pakistan tomorrow, I would be able to put up a very good fight, because I have something that hardly anyone else has – credibility. The basic ingredient for getting votes is trust, and people trust me.”
Roughly two decades and numerous controversies later, Imran Khan continues to believe this, as he has been demanding snap elections in Pakistan since 2022.
“Only someone with a public mandate can make difficult decisions, someone who came through the vote of the people, whom the people trust in,” he said in his Lahore rally last month.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)