2023 Imran Khan Arrest Protests

The 2023 Pakistani protests, or the Imran Khan Arrest protests were a series of protests and riots across Pakistan that started in March 2023. The first of these protests erupted on Tuesday 14 March 2023 after the Pakistani Punjab Police force attempted to arrest Imran Khan—but called off their operation due to the Pakistan Super League Cricket match.

Little over one month later, on Tuesday 9 May 2023 Khan was arrested—triggering violent protests and demonstrations. Social media websites were blocked in Pakistan when the protests began, with Youtube, Twitter and Facebook blocked indefinitely as of mid-May. Nearly 125 million people have been affected by the government’s decision to suspend mobile broadband and block access to social media apps.

Background

These protests are part of wider ongoing political unrest in Pakistan that triggered with the ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan from his office through a vote of No-Confidence Motion (NCM). As a result of successful NCM, Imran Khan became first Pakistani PM ever to be removed by the NCM. After ouster from office Khan alleged that he was ousted by the PDM-an alliance of 13 political parties, with the patronage of connivance between United States and Pakistan's military establishment. Leading up to these protests was the 2022 Toshakhana reference case, a Pakistani government inquiry registered against Imran Khan by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Khan was believed to have been evading mandatory hearings appearances. As a result, the District and Sessions court of capital Islamabad issued an arrest warrant for Khan and ordered the police to arrest him so as to present him for the next hearing.

Khan, however, maintains the arrest is truly aimed at removing him from the upcoming national election.

Series of incidents

Protests first broke out in Islamabad on Tuesday 14 March when police first decided to delay Khan's arrest. Police and party workers clashed outside of his Zaman Park residence in Lahore, and also used gas and a water cannon on supporters nearby. Police also arrested party workers.

The following day, Khan's lawyers approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and requested it to suspend Khan's non-bailable arrest warrants in the Toshakhana case. In a contrary decision, the high court directed the deposed prime minister's counsel to move the trial court instead, as the order for his arrest was "in line with the law".

At around the same time, the Pakistani political party PTI also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) to suspend the warrant orders. However, on 15 March 2023, the LHC ordered the police to halt their operations in Lahore's Zaman Park until March 16, despite their failure to apprehend Khan. They reasoned that an arrest would interfere with the nearby Pakistan Super League playoff match.

On 16 March, Khan—as the chairman of the PTI—requested again the suspension of the non-bailable arrest warrants issued in the Toshakhana case, but this request was denied again by the Islamabad District Court on March 16, 2023. Additional District and Sessions judge Zafar Iqbal announced the verdict and ordered the authorities concerned to arrest the former prime minister and present him before the court on March 18. The Lahore High Court then duplicated its order the police postpone their attempt to detain Khan until March 17.

Second Phase (9-11 May)

The second phase of the protests was brief but marked violence and death of dozens of civilians. It was not until 7 May during a rally that Khan accused a senior ISI intelligence officer, Faisal Naseer, of orchestrating plans to murder him. The next day, ISPR said “irresponsible and baseless allegations" by Khan against a serving senior military officer without evidence were “extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable”.

Two days later, on 9 May, Khan was arrested in Al Qadir University Case and mass protests were held nationwide in Pakistan.

After the arrest of Khan protestors alleged that Khan was arrested on the orders of Pakistan Army for his anti-military stance. Protesters started to attack various military installations across the country. The General Headquaters(GHQ) of Pakistan Army and the official residence of Corps Commander Lahore were attacked by the violent mob. In Islamabad blocked one of the main highways in and out of the capital, people also lit fires and threw stones during this early event. One person died in the locality of Quetta.

Protesters in Peshawar also set fire to the Radio Pakistan premises in protest. The protesters also forcefully stopped an ambulance which was on it's way to a hospital, they took the driver and the patient out of the vehicle and started pelting stones at it first and then set fire to it. There were many clashes during these protests also. At around this time, the social media shutdown was authorised, impacting YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Former ministers who served in the cabinet of ex-PM Imran Khan, namely Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, and Fawad Chaudhry, are among those that have been arrested during the nationwide protests. The Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Khalid Khurshid, was placed under house arrest in Islamabad.

Authorities imposed Section 144 in all provinces of Pakistan, and the Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah requested the deployment of soldiers from the Pakistan Army in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the police force was deemed incapable of handling the situation. As a result, 10 companies of the Army were dispatched to Punjab after the announcement was made.

However, according to reports, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has since deemed the arrest of Imran Khan as unlawful, ordering the Pakistani authorities to release him.

The army was deployed across the country as the death toll was rising in clashes between protestors and the army.

On 12 May, Khan was released on bail and made his way to his personal residence on Lahore. Once out of prison he stated that “I am 100% sure I will be arrested again." and also noted that arrest warrants will be issued for his wife, Bushra Bibi, and that she too will likely be arrested. In an attempt to quell the situation, the Pakistani government shut down the rest of the internet, which failed to stifle the discontent and further fueled the protests across the country.

Pakistani police surrounded Khan's house in Lahore on 17 May. Authorities issued a 24-hour deadline to Khan to surrender suspects, linked to the previous weeks violence, allegedly sheltered inside his home but the deadline expired without his arrest. He said he asked journalists to come to his home, which led to a de-escalation with police. "So that defused the situation because clearly there were no terrorists. So that's when the police could not take action," the former prime minister added.

Conflicting views regarding the motive of the protests

As indicated by renowned journalist Dr. Moeed Pirzada, that all that happened on May 9th 2023 and onwards, the protests and burning of few government/military buildings, was all planned by military establishment and a large group of public seems to be inline with this thought. This was also being stated by Imran Khan as well. According to Dr. Moeed Pirzada and many other journalists, it was a strategy to label PTI as an extremist party, start a crackdown over its political leaders & workers by detaining over 10 thousand workes where the female prisoners were being humiliated & raped and eventually pave the way to ban the political party.

On the other hand, an audio leak of one of Khan's trusted lieutenants, Murad Saeed, emerged in which he was heard urging the followers of Imran Khan to target places already shown to them before, which corresponded to the government stance that the protests of 9th May 2023 were actually an attempt to stage a coup against the sitting Army chief in collusion with army officers sympathetic to Imran Khan, including the then Corps Commander of Lahore.

References

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