PTI News, Updates and Discussion
- Thread starter ghazi52
- Start date
- Status
ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Thread starter
- #587
Govt benefits from strained relationship between PTI, establishment: Barrister Saif
KP govt spokesperson says CM Gandapur was out of contact on Monday night due to "jammers", which got the party worried.
Forsvaret
Trusted Member
He is a bootlicker himself.
Govt benefits from strained relationship between PTI, establishment: Barrister Saif
KP govt spokesperson says CM Gandapur was out of contact on Monday night due to "jammers", which got the party worried.
Fatman17
Moderator
The Supreme Court on Saturday rebuked the “misconceived” request by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to seek clarification from the top court on its verdict in the reserved seats case and ordered the immediate implementation of its original directions.
On July 12, a 13-judge full bench of the apex court had declared that the opposition PTI was eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition and potentially making the PTI single largest party in both houses of Parliament.
The Supreme Court had also declared the PTI a parliamentary party.
Read more: https://www.dawn.com/news/1858957/s...ediate-implentation-of-reserved-seats-verdict
On July 12, a 13-judge full bench of the apex court had declared that the opposition PTI was eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition and potentially making the PTI single largest party in both houses of Parliament.
The Supreme Court had also declared the PTI a parliamentary party.
Read more: https://www.dawn.com/news/1858957/s...ediate-implentation-of-reserved-seats-verdict
ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Thread starter
- #592
PTI granted permission for Lahore rally at Kahna after LHC ruling
DC Office issues permit, saying rally will take place at Ring Road Kahna instead of Minar-e-PakistanCorrespondent
September 20, 2024
Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party gather during a rally to mark one-year anniversary of Khan's imprisonment, in Swabi on August 5, 2024. Photo: AFP
LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has received official permission from the district administration to hold a rally at Lahore Ring Road, Kahna on Saturday, September 21, subject to compliance with 43 conditions.
This approval comes following a directive from the Lahore High Cort, which ordered the district administration to make a decision on PTI's rally request by 5pm.
The Deputy Commissioner’s office issued the permit, specifying that the rally will take place at Ring Road, Kahna instead of the originally planned Minar-e-Pakistan venue. The PTI has been authorised to hold its gathering between 3pm and 6pm.
Among the 43 conditions, one required Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to issue a public apology for his “vitriolic” remarks during the party’s Islamabad rally on September 8.
The conditions also specified that groups of supporters from outside the city should refrain from disrupting daily life, and that no anti-state slogans would be tolerated.
Additionally, PTI members currently on trial for hate speech related to the Islamabad rally would be barred from appearing on stage, and no proclaimed offenders would be allowed to participate in the event.
The organisers were held responsible for ensuring that any proclaimed offenders were apprehended. Failure to do so would result in charges of aiding and abetting those individuals.
Moreover, the conditions prohibited the broadcast or display of any audio or video messages from proclaimed offenders or convicts.
The NOC further cautioned organisers to take comprehensive security measures in and around the venue, citing overall security concerns and threat alerts from various sources, as the rally was being held at their behest.
Meanwhile, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), announced that the party has been granted a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the Lahore rally scheduled for September 21.
"I am grateful to the district administration for issuing the NOC," Barrister Gohar stated.
He urged, "I request all party workers and supporters from across the country to attend the rally in large numbers."
Barrister Gohar also appealed to the administration, "Please ensure that there are no roadblocks tomorrow, so that the public can reach on time and we can conclude the rally as planned."
He further called on PTI workers to participate in the rally peacefully, emphasising, "I request everyone to arrive at the venue by 1pm, so that all proceedings can take place on time."
"This is a message from our founding chairman Imran Khan, urging all workers to attend the rally," he added.
In his final appeal, Barrister Gohar requested, "I ask the people of Lahore and Punjab to join the rally in large numbers."
Earlier in the day, the opposition leader of Punjab, Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar, along with several members of the Punjab Assembly, visited the Minar-e-Pakistan site only to find the gates locked and a heavy police presence barring their entry.
The district administration, in a proactive move, has restricted public access to Minar-e-Pakistan by locking all gates and placing containers on the access roads. A significant police deployment has also been stationed at the site.
Meanwhile, PTI's preparations for the Lahore rally have entered the final stages. A convoy led by Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur is scheduled to depart from Swabi tomorrow morning. The PTI leadership has instructed each candidate to bring along 500 supporters.
The convoy, headed by the chief minister, will carry machinery to remove any obstacles encountered on the route.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Information Adviser, Barrister Saif, confirmed that all preparations for the Lahore rally have been completed. "A sea of people from Swabi will head towards Lahore," he declared, urging the government not to create hurdles for the rally. "Maryam Nawaz should keep her composure," he added.
It is noteworthy that the Lahore High Court had earlier dismissed a petition seeking to block the rally, stating that it was inadmissible. The court directed the Deputy Commissioner to decide on PTI's application by 5pm, as per the law.
Incarcerated PTI founding chairman Imran Khan, during an informal conversation with journalists at Adiala Jail, warned that if the government denied permission for the Lahore rally, "we will turn the rally into a protest." He added that if the rally was blocked, "the entire nation will protest at Minar-e-Pakistan."
Khan asserted that the rally is intended to "protect democracy and freedom," a right endorsed by the Supreme Court but repeatedly obstructed by the government. He criticised the government's approach to rallies, questioning why obstacles were set up at previous gatherings, despite assurances. "If the Deputy Commissioner of Lahore does not permit the rally, we will protest at Minar Pakistan," he reiterated.
Comparing the current situation to former president Musharraf's era, Khan noted that even during martial law, political rallies and media freedom were not as severely restricted. "Musharraf's elections were freer and fairer than theirs, and he did not impose bans on the media and rallies," Khan remarked.
Khan concluded by criticising the government's selective approval process, stating, "Their requests are being heard, while ours are being rejected."
ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Thread starter
- #593
PTI leaders make their way to Lahore for political power show
Party says KP CM “may clarify his position” for his inflammatory remarks in Sept 8 Islamabad rally during his speech today.
ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Thread starter
- #594
Attempts afoot to impose “civil martial law”: Asad Qaiser
Says PTI fully prepared for today’s Lahore rally while addressing public at Gulu Dheri.
Fatman17
Moderator
EXCLUSIVE
ASIA
The Sports Star and Tabloid Fixture Staring Down Pakistan’s Army
Imran Khan tells The Wall Street Journal from jail that he’s battling for democracy
Activists loyal to Imran Khan take part in a rally on the outskirts of Islamabad. FAROOQ NAEEM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Saeed Shah
Updated Sept. 23, 2024 at 12:02 am ET
Listen to article
Length (11 minutes)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—In August, Pakistani officials approached the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan with an urgent request: Postpone a rally planned for the following day in the capital, Islamabad, for fear of clashes with another protest.
Azam Swati, a former senator in Khan’s party, drove through the night to the jail housing Khan. Seated across a glass separation wall, the two men spoke for almost two hours. Khan called off the rally.
“Asim Munir, this country is now a tinderbox,” said Khan, who believes his jail meetings are bugged, addressing Pakistan’s army chief, according to Swati. “But I will not be the one to light the fire.”
Imprisoned over a year ago, Khan, a cricket star turned politician—or “Prisoner 804” as many call him—is locked in a confrontation with the military, which has controlled the country’s politics for decades. From jail, he still makes decisions big and small for the party he built. Since prison rules allow him to meet his legal team, he has appointed lawyers to many of the party’s top positions.
The army’s falling out with Khan, which led to his dismissal as prime minister in 2022 and then imprisonment, has pushed the nuclear-armed country of 240 million into political and economic turmoil.
Since being ousted from power, he has galvanized popular anger with the heavy-handed role the army—which staged coups in the past—has in the country’s affairs.
An AI-crafted speech of Imran Khan on television.
AKHTAR SOOMRO/ REUTERS
Police stand guard outside the jail housing Khan.
AAMIR QURESHI/ AFP/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party rallies on the outskirts of Islamabad.
FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan told The Wall Street Journal in an interview from jail that he would fight on.
“The people of Pakistan, including those typically disengaged from politics, recognized the injustice,” the 71-year-old said of his ousting, in written responses to questions.
The army says it doesn’t interfere in politics.
“The Pakistan army is a national army, and it has no political agenda,” military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told reporters this month.
The mantle of pro-democracy dissident is an unlikely finale for Pakistan’s golden boy. The former captain of the national cricket team was feted for his sports prowess, and his romantic ties and nightclub outings in London were fixtures in British tabloids. Then the loss of his mother invigorated his faith and propelled him toward politics.
Khan’s candidates took the most seats in this year’s election, despite handicaps put on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party’s campaign and widespread allegations of rigging by the authorities, which the government and military deny.
“The people and I won” the election, Khan said, adding that no part of society “is truly free in Pakistan at the moment.”
The face-off between Khan and the military establishment is set to intensify.
Tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters gathered at a party rally in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday.
In recent weeks, courts have suspended or overturned convictions for corruption and leaking state secrets handed down to Khan. However, Khan, who denies any wrongdoing, remains in jail on other charges.
Meanwhile, the coalition government formed by Khan’s opponents with support from the military, headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has struggled to establish legitimacy. The administration is seeking constitutional changes that could blunt the power of the courts.
“The nation teeters on the brink of moral and financial bankruptcy, and its people, disillusioned, see no hope in the current imposed government,” said Khan.
Pakistan’s defense minister said Khan could face a secret military trial for orchestrating protests last year that erupted at military installations. Some charges could carry the death penalty.
“His aim was an insurrection within the army and total chaos,” said Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the defense minister.
Cricket star, tabloid fodder
After making a debut as a teenager on Pakistan’s national cricket team, he was admitted to Oxford University with the help of a cricket-obsessed history professor there, though Khan conceded in a later documentary that his grades “were not that brilliant.”
He became one of the all-time greats in a sport followed by billions.
As captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Imran Khan celebrates with teammates after the 1992 World Cup victory.
BEN RADFORD/ALLSPORT/GETTY IMAGES/HULTON ARCHIVE
Khan bowls to England captain David Gower at Headingley Stadium, northern England, in 1987.
PATRICK EAGAR/POPPERFOTO/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan’s strength was tenacity, said Osman Samiuddin, a cricket writer based in London. “He would not back down against a better team,” said Samiuddin.
In the 1992 World Cup, with his team flagging, Khan rallied the players in a now-famous dressing room speech, urging them to “fight like cornered tigers.” Pakistan went on to win the tournament.
He is now calling upon those competitive instincts in his clash with the military, said Aleema Khanum, a younger sister. “This is a game of pressure,” she said.
For years, Khan lived a freewheeling life in London, a familiar face in the city’s nightclubs. He didn’t drink alcohol or smoke, instead ordering a glass of milk, friends said.
In 1995, he married 21-year-old British heiress Jemima Goldsmith. She converted to Islam and they settled in Pakistan. Princess Diana stayed with them on a private visit to Pakistan the following year.
The death of his mother from cancer years earlier drew him closer to the mystical form of Islam she had followed—and gradually led him to leave behind what he called a “pleasure-seeking existence” in his 2011 autobiography.
Later, after entering politics, his religiosity played to the conservatism of Pakistan’s new urban middle class, offering a vision of an Islamic welfare state that takes care of the poor.
His first marriage ended in 2004, with Jemima Khan moving back to London with the couple’s two sons.
After a short-lived second marriage, Khan quietly wed his spiritual guide in 2018. A conservative Muslim who was married and was the mother of five when they met, she wore a full veil in public. Months later, he was elected prime minister.
Khan in Pakistan in January 1997. PHOTO: CHIP HIRES/ GAMMA-RAPHO/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan was initially allied with the army—his opponents say it was the military that helped him become prime minister, something both deny. But relations soured, as happened with previous prime ministers. It was in part due to Khan’s push for a foreign policy more independent of the U.S., he says. Washington has for decades had deep ties with the Pakistani military, more recently to combat terrorism.
As part of that effort, Khan was in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Khan says there was also friction over a key security official whom he insisted stay in a post longer than the military wanted.
The army declined to comment.
Military pressure peeled off some of Khan’s allies in parliament and brought together the opposition, which mounted a no-confidence vote that ousted him in April 2022, according to politicians involved from both sides.
Then, in November 2022, Khan was preparing to address a crowd from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck, as a religious song played.
Suddenly gunfire broke out.
Faisal Javed, a senator for Khan’s party who was with him, said that they both fell to the floor when the shooting began. Khan was shot in the legs.
Khan accused senior army officers of being behind an assassination attempt. The authorities have said that the gunman, caught at the scene, was a lone religious fanatic.
Khan being discharged from a hospital after treatment for gunshot wounds from an assassination attempt in 2022. PHOTO: MUHAMMED SEMIH UGURLU/ ANADOLU AGENCY/ GETTY IMAGES
Later the same month, Sharif, who became interim prime minister after Khan was ousted, picked Munir as the new army chief. As prime minister, Khan had fired Munir as chief of the country’s spy agency and has branded him “king of the jungle.”
‘Prisoner 804’
The army has long characterized its mission as a jihad, or holy war, protecting a nation with a religious foundation—a role that Khan has co-opted.
“Imran Khan has managed to capture the slogans of piety and patriotism which always used to be under the custody of the establishment,” said Niaz Murtaza, a Pakistani newspaper columnist.
One of Khan’s several convictions earlier this year appeared to be an attempt to undermine his standing as a devout Muslim. After probing the details of his wife’s menstrual cycles in a case that many Pakistanis felt was a violation of privacy, a judge ruled that their marriage violated Islamic tenets because three menstrual cycles hadn’t passed since her divorce from her previous husband. The seven-year sentence was later overturned but his wife too remains in jail.
When Khan was arrested in May 2023, supporters took out their anger on the army, vandalizing monuments to fallen soldiers, gutting a fort and ransacking the official home of a general—making off with strawberries from his freezer and a peacock from the garden.
Some 10,000 were arrested, along with many leaders of Khan’s party. Khan blames infiltrators for the violence.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters outside the Parliament House building in Islamabad in 2022. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
The crackdown meant that candidates of Khan’s party had to campaign for the election in the shadows, often holding events online. With the help of artificial intelligence, the jailed Khan even gave an election speech through a virtual avatar.
Khan’s tech-savvy party has tapped into Pakistan’s widespread smartphone use to reach rural areas and the working class, said Umair Javed, an assistant professor of sociology at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
The authorities have responded by blocking social-media platform X after supporters of Khan levied allegations of election rigging there. The army chief calls critics of the military on social media “digital terrorists.”
“There can be no compromise or deal with the planners and architects of this dark chapter in our history,” Munir said in May, marking the first anniversary of the protests.
Khan’s spirits remain high, visitors say.
He is allowed an exercise bike, a bar to do chin-ups, and a resistance band in his windowless cell. Reading takes up much of his day, particularly the Quran. A recent request was Leo Tolstoy’s novel about a Chechen rebel, Hadji Murat, who meets a grim end.
A biography of Iqbal, an early 20th-century poet and political thinker whom Khan has long admired, and whose ideas helped lead to the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan, sits in a pile of books in his cell. During a brief release from jail last year, Khan tweeted a line from a poem by Iqbal: “A Muslim is a servant unto God alone; he does not bow down to any Pharaoh or Tyrant.”
ASIA
The Sports Star and Tabloid Fixture Staring Down Pakistan’s Army
Imran Khan tells The Wall Street Journal from jail that he’s battling for democracy
Activists loyal to Imran Khan take part in a rally on the outskirts of Islamabad. FAROOQ NAEEM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Saeed Shah
Updated Sept. 23, 2024 at 12:02 am ET
Listen to article
Length (11 minutes)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—In August, Pakistani officials approached the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan with an urgent request: Postpone a rally planned for the following day in the capital, Islamabad, for fear of clashes with another protest.
Azam Swati, a former senator in Khan’s party, drove through the night to the jail housing Khan. Seated across a glass separation wall, the two men spoke for almost two hours. Khan called off the rally.
“Asim Munir, this country is now a tinderbox,” said Khan, who believes his jail meetings are bugged, addressing Pakistan’s army chief, according to Swati. “But I will not be the one to light the fire.”
Imprisoned over a year ago, Khan, a cricket star turned politician—or “Prisoner 804” as many call him—is locked in a confrontation with the military, which has controlled the country’s politics for decades. From jail, he still makes decisions big and small for the party he built. Since prison rules allow him to meet his legal team, he has appointed lawyers to many of the party’s top positions.
The army’s falling out with Khan, which led to his dismissal as prime minister in 2022 and then imprisonment, has pushed the nuclear-armed country of 240 million into political and economic turmoil.
Since being ousted from power, he has galvanized popular anger with the heavy-handed role the army—which staged coups in the past—has in the country’s affairs.
An AI-crafted speech of Imran Khan on television.
AKHTAR SOOMRO/ REUTERS
Police stand guard outside the jail housing Khan.
AAMIR QURESHI/ AFP/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party rallies on the outskirts of Islamabad.
FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan told The Wall Street Journal in an interview from jail that he would fight on.
“The people of Pakistan, including those typically disengaged from politics, recognized the injustice,” the 71-year-old said of his ousting, in written responses to questions.
The army says it doesn’t interfere in politics.
“The Pakistan army is a national army, and it has no political agenda,” military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told reporters this month.
The mantle of pro-democracy dissident is an unlikely finale for Pakistan’s golden boy. The former captain of the national cricket team was feted for his sports prowess, and his romantic ties and nightclub outings in London were fixtures in British tabloids. Then the loss of his mother invigorated his faith and propelled him toward politics.
Khan’s candidates took the most seats in this year’s election, despite handicaps put on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party’s campaign and widespread allegations of rigging by the authorities, which the government and military deny.
“The people and I won” the election, Khan said, adding that no part of society “is truly free in Pakistan at the moment.”
The face-off between Khan and the military establishment is set to intensify.
Tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters gathered at a party rally in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday.
In recent weeks, courts have suspended or overturned convictions for corruption and leaking state secrets handed down to Khan. However, Khan, who denies any wrongdoing, remains in jail on other charges.
Meanwhile, the coalition government formed by Khan’s opponents with support from the military, headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has struggled to establish legitimacy. The administration is seeking constitutional changes that could blunt the power of the courts.
“The nation teeters on the brink of moral and financial bankruptcy, and its people, disillusioned, see no hope in the current imposed government,” said Khan.
Pakistan’s defense minister said Khan could face a secret military trial for orchestrating protests last year that erupted at military installations. Some charges could carry the death penalty.
“His aim was an insurrection within the army and total chaos,” said Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the defense minister.
Cricket star, tabloid fodder
After making a debut as a teenager on Pakistan’s national cricket team, he was admitted to Oxford University with the help of a cricket-obsessed history professor there, though Khan conceded in a later documentary that his grades “were not that brilliant.”
He became one of the all-time greats in a sport followed by billions.
As captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Imran Khan celebrates with teammates after the 1992 World Cup victory.
BEN RADFORD/ALLSPORT/GETTY IMAGES/HULTON ARCHIVE
Khan bowls to England captain David Gower at Headingley Stadium, northern England, in 1987.
PATRICK EAGAR/POPPERFOTO/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan’s strength was tenacity, said Osman Samiuddin, a cricket writer based in London. “He would not back down against a better team,” said Samiuddin.
In the 1992 World Cup, with his team flagging, Khan rallied the players in a now-famous dressing room speech, urging them to “fight like cornered tigers.” Pakistan went on to win the tournament.
He is now calling upon those competitive instincts in his clash with the military, said Aleema Khanum, a younger sister. “This is a game of pressure,” she said.
For years, Khan lived a freewheeling life in London, a familiar face in the city’s nightclubs. He didn’t drink alcohol or smoke, instead ordering a glass of milk, friends said.
In 1995, he married 21-year-old British heiress Jemima Goldsmith. She converted to Islam and they settled in Pakistan. Princess Diana stayed with them on a private visit to Pakistan the following year.
The death of his mother from cancer years earlier drew him closer to the mystical form of Islam she had followed—and gradually led him to leave behind what he called a “pleasure-seeking existence” in his 2011 autobiography.
Later, after entering politics, his religiosity played to the conservatism of Pakistan’s new urban middle class, offering a vision of an Islamic welfare state that takes care of the poor.
His first marriage ended in 2004, with Jemima Khan moving back to London with the couple’s two sons.
After a short-lived second marriage, Khan quietly wed his spiritual guide in 2018. A conservative Muslim who was married and was the mother of five when they met, she wore a full veil in public. Months later, he was elected prime minister.
Khan in Pakistan in January 1997. PHOTO: CHIP HIRES/ GAMMA-RAPHO/ GETTY IMAGES
Khan was initially allied with the army—his opponents say it was the military that helped him become prime minister, something both deny. But relations soured, as happened with previous prime ministers. It was in part due to Khan’s push for a foreign policy more independent of the U.S., he says. Washington has for decades had deep ties with the Pakistani military, more recently to combat terrorism.
As part of that effort, Khan was in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Khan says there was also friction over a key security official whom he insisted stay in a post longer than the military wanted.
The army declined to comment.
Military pressure peeled off some of Khan’s allies in parliament and brought together the opposition, which mounted a no-confidence vote that ousted him in April 2022, according to politicians involved from both sides.
Then, in November 2022, Khan was preparing to address a crowd from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck, as a religious song played.
Suddenly gunfire broke out.
Faisal Javed, a senator for Khan’s party who was with him, said that they both fell to the floor when the shooting began. Khan was shot in the legs.
Khan accused senior army officers of being behind an assassination attempt. The authorities have said that the gunman, caught at the scene, was a lone religious fanatic.
Khan being discharged from a hospital after treatment for gunshot wounds from an assassination attempt in 2022. PHOTO: MUHAMMED SEMIH UGURLU/ ANADOLU AGENCY/ GETTY IMAGES
Later the same month, Sharif, who became interim prime minister after Khan was ousted, picked Munir as the new army chief. As prime minister, Khan had fired Munir as chief of the country’s spy agency and has branded him “king of the jungle.”
‘Prisoner 804’
The army has long characterized its mission as a jihad, or holy war, protecting a nation with a religious foundation—a role that Khan has co-opted.
“Imran Khan has managed to capture the slogans of piety and patriotism which always used to be under the custody of the establishment,” said Niaz Murtaza, a Pakistani newspaper columnist.
One of Khan’s several convictions earlier this year appeared to be an attempt to undermine his standing as a devout Muslim. After probing the details of his wife’s menstrual cycles in a case that many Pakistanis felt was a violation of privacy, a judge ruled that their marriage violated Islamic tenets because three menstrual cycles hadn’t passed since her divorce from her previous husband. The seven-year sentence was later overturned but his wife too remains in jail.
When Khan was arrested in May 2023, supporters took out their anger on the army, vandalizing monuments to fallen soldiers, gutting a fort and ransacking the official home of a general—making off with strawberries from his freezer and a peacock from the garden.
Some 10,000 were arrested, along with many leaders of Khan’s party. Khan blames infiltrators for the violence.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters outside the Parliament House building in Islamabad in 2022. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
The crackdown meant that candidates of Khan’s party had to campaign for the election in the shadows, often holding events online. With the help of artificial intelligence, the jailed Khan even gave an election speech through a virtual avatar.
Khan’s tech-savvy party has tapped into Pakistan’s widespread smartphone use to reach rural areas and the working class, said Umair Javed, an assistant professor of sociology at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
The authorities have responded by blocking social-media platform X after supporters of Khan levied allegations of election rigging there. The army chief calls critics of the military on social media “digital terrorists.”
“There can be no compromise or deal with the planners and architects of this dark chapter in our history,” Munir said in May, marking the first anniversary of the protests.
Khan’s spirits remain high, visitors say.
He is allowed an exercise bike, a bar to do chin-ups, and a resistance band in his windowless cell. Reading takes up much of his day, particularly the Quran. A recent request was Leo Tolstoy’s novel about a Chechen rebel, Hadji Murat, who meets a grim end.
A biography of Iqbal, an early 20th-century poet and political thinker whom Khan has long admired, and whose ideas helped lead to the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan, sits in a pile of books in his cell. During a brief release from jail last year, Khan tweeted a line from a poem by Iqbal: “A Muslim is a servant unto God alone; he does not bow down to any Pharaoh or Tyrant.”
Asfandyar Bhittani
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has announced a series of protests in support of the judiciary, beginning in Mianwali, Faisalabad, and Bahawalpur on October 2.
Addressing his supporters through a statement issued from Adiala Jail on Monday, Khan said, "We will protest at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on October 5, and on October 4, Friday, we will gather at D-Chowk [in Islamabad]."
Khan warned of attempts to "crush PTI" through the so-called "London Plan," adding that his arrest was part of the broader scheme. "They want to break me in jail, but I am not afraid, and neither should the people be," he remarked.
He emphasised that PTI's protests would remain peaceful, stating, "We have always protested peacefully, but this system has failed to protect us."
Khan also highlighted the treatment of women within the party, mentioning, "Our women are languishing in jails. An 80-year-old woman was charged, yet no one cared."
Khan voiced support for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who has led a march towards Islamabad, stating that Gandapur "awakened the province's people" and echoed his call for revolution. "Ali Amin was right; revolution will come, and our message has reached the public," Khan added.
The PTI leader reiterated his party's commitment to defending the judiciary and continuing their "struggle for freedom." He also mentioned his wife Bushra Bibi, who has been imprisoned for several months, accusing the government of trying to weaken him through arrests.
Meanwhile, the federal government has decided to file sedition charges against PTI leaders over speeches made at a rally in Sangjani, Islamabad on September 8.
According to sources, the law ministry will invoke Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows for sedition charges without the need for arrest warrants.
The federal prosecutor general and the law ministry have both approved the charges, with the matter now awaiting cabinet approval before formal charges are filed against PTI leadership.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has announced a series of protests in support of the judiciary, beginning in Mianwali, Faisalabad, and Bahawalpur on October 2.
Addressing his supporters through a statement issued from Adiala Jail on Monday, Khan said, "We will protest at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on October 5, and on October 4, Friday, we will gather at D-Chowk [in Islamabad]."
Khan warned of attempts to "crush PTI" through the so-called "London Plan," adding that his arrest was part of the broader scheme. "They want to break me in jail, but I am not afraid, and neither should the people be," he remarked.
He emphasised that PTI's protests would remain peaceful, stating, "We have always protested peacefully, but this system has failed to protect us."
Khan also highlighted the treatment of women within the party, mentioning, "Our women are languishing in jails. An 80-year-old woman was charged, yet no one cared."
Khan voiced support for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who has led a march towards Islamabad, stating that Gandapur "awakened the province's people" and echoed his call for revolution. "Ali Amin was right; revolution will come, and our message has reached the public," Khan added.
The PTI leader reiterated his party's commitment to defending the judiciary and continuing their "struggle for freedom." He also mentioned his wife Bushra Bibi, who has been imprisoned for several months, accusing the government of trying to weaken him through arrests.
Meanwhile, the federal government has decided to file sedition charges against PTI leaders over speeches made at a rally in Sangjani, Islamabad on September 8.
According to sources, the law ministry will invoke Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows for sedition charges without the need for arrest warrants.
The federal prosecutor general and the law ministry have both approved the charges, with the matter now awaiting cabinet approval before formal charges are filed against PTI leadership.
- Status
