Imran Khan's supporters celebrate the Supreme Court's decision in Islamabad. "There is still uncertainty, but hopefully the situation will not return to the kind of violent scenes that we have seen."
"The last couple of days have seen extraordinary violence by protesters who are supporters of Imran Khan, who are obviously enraged by the manner in which he was arrested," she said. Elections are due later this year.įormer Pakistani ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the BBC she thought the court's decision would help to defuse the anger of Khan's supporters. He pleaded not guilty.Ĭonviction would disqualify the former international cricket star - prime minister from 2018-2022 - from standing for office, possibly for life. Khan has been kept at a police guesthouse in the capital since Tuesday, which was turned into a makeshift court on Wednesday where a judge formally charged him with corruption for the first time in the dozens of cases he faces. In a statement Qureshi denied this and urged supporters to continue with peaceful protests. They include former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who police say "incited violence". Seven senior PTI leaders are among those arrested.
The arrest enraged his supporters - the past 48 hours have seen widespread violence and rare attacks on state and military facilities. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party says the cases against him are politically motivated. There was no immediate response from the security forces to the allegation. He was reminded several times by the judges that others had experienced worse treatment. The former cricketer told the judges he had been kidnapped from the High Court on Tuesday and "hit with sticks". It was then Khan's turn to speak, defiant and indignant at the way he had been arrested. He would now be under the protection of the Supreme Court. "Your arrest was invalid so the whole process needs to be backtracked," Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Khan. Khan stood surrounded by his lawyers in front of the three Supreme Court judges as they told him that because of the way he had been arrested on Tuesday - inside a court complex, conducting biometric tests - the arrest was invalid.įootage of his arrest showed paramilitary forces seizing Khan, who was injured in a gun attack last year, and dragging him from inside court premises, before whisking him away in an armoured vehicle. Surrounded by security, Khan said nothing as he walked to the wood-panelled courtroom which was filled with officials from his party and journalists. A car delivers Imran Khan to the Supreme Court building in Islamabad.
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