New Delhi: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan sunk deeper into a legal quamire on Wednesday, May 10. While he was sent to eight-day custody in the graft case in which he was arrested a day earlier, another court also formally framed charges against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief in a second graft case.Khan faced another setback after the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea by the PTI challenging his arrest. According to Geo TV, the Supreme Court registrar’s office said the Khan did not approach the “relevant forum” and the petition did not have his signature.Produced in court in two separate casesKhan was first produced in a temporary court that was established in an Islamabad police station on Wednesday, May 10, a day after his dramatic arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from the high court in Pakistan’s capital.According to reports, the NAB sought to keep the PTI chief in custody for 14 days, even as his lawyers said there was no need for the agency to seek physical remand. The court granted the agency eight days of custody, shortly after reserving its plea.Khan’s arrest sparked bouts of violence across Pakistan on Tuesday, with his supporters targeting military establishments. Khan was unseated in April last year after he lost a trust vote, following which the Shehbaz Sharif government came to power. However, he remains a popular figure among the people and has proved a thorn in the side of the “establishment” – a euphemism which in Pakistan refers to the country’s politically powerful Army.According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, NAB officials gave details about the Al Qadir Trust case in which Khan was arrested. They said that money that was supposed to be given to the government of Pakistan was instead given to Bahria Town, the company run by real estate tycoon Malik Riaz. In exchange, the company provided money to Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi and land to the Al Qadir educational trust, which is also linked to his family.“This is a corruption case which the UK’s National Crime Agency has probed,” the NAB’s lawyer said, according to Dawn.Also Read | Explained: The Case That Imran Khan Has Been Arrested inThe newspaper said that the PTI chief contradicted the NAB’s version that he was shown the arrest warrant when he was picked up at the Islamabad high court. He said the warrant was shown to him at the bureau’s office and said he feared for his life.“I haven’t gone to the washroom in 24 hours,” he said, and requested that his physician should be allowed to meet him. He said referred to the death of a person involved in a separate case after arrest, saying, “They inject you and the person dies slowly.”Indicted in second caseKhan was indicted – meaning the court formally framed charges – in the Toshakhana corruption case, in which he is accused of illegally selling gifts that he received from foreign dignitaries during his 2018-22 tenure as premier.Khan has denied wrongdoing in both cases.According to Dawn, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) sought criminal proceedings against Khan after looking into a complaint filed by ruling lawmakers last year that the PTI chief “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained and then sold for a profit. The matter is popularly called “Toshaskhana case”, after the repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are stored.Indian bridge team in LahoreA 30-member Indian team is in Pakistan to participate in the card game ‘bridge’ as part of the Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East (BFAME) Championships. The matches are being conducted in Lahore, and after violence broke out in various cities, the Indian high commission asked the Pakistani authorities to provide adequate security to them and facilitate their return.In a tweet shared by the Pakistan Bridge Federation, the Indian team captain Ranjan Bhattacharya said that his team is performing well and has no plans to return early at the moment.BFAME updates;The news is fake, and there are no plans for an early return says Indian captain Ranjan Bhattacharya. The Indian team is winning and we will return together.@Sportskeeda @the_bridge_in @IndiaAllsports @Republic_Bharat @bridgelinks #bfame #bfameinpakistan pic.twitter.com/nRGqyuzG5A— Pakistan Bridge Federation (@PakBridgeFed) May 10, 2023Hundreds arrested, but violence continuesAccording to Associated Press, at least two people were killed in overnight violence. On Wednesday afternoon, a journalist tweeted that “4 bodies and 27 injured have been received at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar”.In the Punjab province, 157 police officers were injured in clashes with Khan’s supporters. The local government has called in the army to restore order.Amnesty International said it was “alarmed” by reports that access to mobile internet networks and social media remain suspended for a second day. Amnesty urged authorities to “show restraint, saying clashes between law enforcement and Khan’s supporters risk human rights violations”, according to AP.Local media reports said that the Internet may remain suspended indefinitely in view of the tense situation on the ground.The Reuters report said that “hundreds of supporters” of Khan have been arrested for violence. In Punjab province alone, 945 supporters were arrested. The report said that 25 police vehicles and more than 14 government buildings were set on fire in Punjab.Several top PTI officials, including secretary general Asad Umar, have also been arrested.Fire outside the PMLN office in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo: Screengrab from video“This can’t be tolerated, the law will take its course,” planning minister Ahsan Iqbal told a news conference, according to Reuters. “These violent attacks were not the outcome of any public outpouring, they were planned by the PTI rank and file.”Section 144, which bans the gathering of more than four people, has been imposed in three of Pakistan’s four provinces.But reports of violence continued for a second day. The Peshawar radio station, one of the oldest in South Asia, was set on fire by protestors. It was established in 1935 with a loaner transmitter from the Marconi Radio Company, exiled Pakistani writer Mohammad Taqi said.The Islamabad police claimed that PTI workers were setting trees on fire and damaging government property. “Protesters are throwing petrol bombs and pelting stones. Passengers are requested to choose safe route for transportation,” a machine translation of the police’s Urdu tweet read.PTI leader and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi asked whether his party gave a call for the storming of military establishments, including the Army’s headquarters and instead claimed that government agencies were targeting army installments.Another top leader, Fawad Choudhary, insinuated the same. “It seems from the media coverage of Pakistan at the moment that tickers are being made from the same place, and efforts are being made to prove Tehreek-e-Insaaf as a violent party. Defeat the plan to fight, the country is also ours and the army is also ours,” he said, according to a machine translation of his Urdu tweet.Questions about NAB’s independenceAP reported that the NAB, which has investigated several former prime ministers, politicians and retired military officers, is seen by some “as a tool used by those in power, especially the military, to crack down on political opponents”.The report said that when Khan was in power, Shehbaz Sharif, then opposition leader, was arrested by the NAB. Multiple corruption cases against Sharif were dropped after he came to power, citing a lack of evidence.Khan was arrested one day after the Army rebuked his repeated accusation that a senior military officer was trying to engineer his assassination, according to Reuters. He also accused the military establishment of overseeing his ouster from power.
