Pakistan: Imran Khan’s party accuses officials of preventing him from visiting

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, said on Sunday that officials had denied his legal team access to the leader in order to get his signatures on crucial court papers.

Khan, 70, was detained from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on Saturday not long after being found guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case and given a three-year jail term by an Islamabad trial court.

Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party’s leader, is now incarcerated in the Attock Jail after being found guilty of hiding the sale of official goods. A sessions court in Islamabad made its decision on the matter.

Khan’s detention was referred to as a “abduction” by the PTI in a statement that was posted on a WhatsApp group. Despite requests to Superintendent Attock Prison & Additional Home Secretary Punjab, it said, “Chairman’s legal team is not being given access to him for getting legal documents signed, as per the prerequisite.”

“This sounds more like a kidnapping than an arrest,” someone said. Khan was detained at his Zaman Park home in Lahore and transported by car to Attock City, the last significant town in Punjab that sits on the border of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

He was initially supposed to be imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, but for security reasons, he was transferred to Attock. Contrary to his arrest on May 9 when thousands of supporters showed out to protest the imprisonment, this arrest did not result in large throngs of supporters taking to the streets.

In a video message, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the PTI’s leader in Khan’s absence, asked workers to demonstrate peacefully. “We have the right to peacefully demonstrate, but no state property may be harmed. Don’t try to enforce the law yourself, he said.

Khan delivered a similar message in a pre-recorded video that the party distributed on social media, but the reaction from the audience was muted. The party has significantly shrunk since the May 9 violence, which witnessed coordinated assaults on military stations and other state assets, which is the main cause of the tepid reaction.

Several influential party members abandoned the party after being detained during the demonstration or were forced to. Qureshi has convened a meeting of the PTI core committee to plan a response to Khan’s conviction, but he has few options. Its cornerstone now that it has lost the support of the establishment is any backing from the courts or Pakistanis residing overseas.

Since an appeal against the sessions court’s order to bar witnesses is still pending at the Islamabad High Court, many people think that the decision was made in a haste. Second, the court made its decision about the case’s maintainability without consulting the PTI attorneys, who were not present.

Khan may appeal the decision at the high court, where it may be vigorously contested on both legal and technical grounds. The Supreme Court will then decide the case. PTI has a sizable support base among expatriates, and their demonstrations in the main cities of the West may exert some pressure on the government, but it will take time.