Pakistan: 75 Opp Leaders Jailed Over 2023 Protests Against Imran Khan’s Arrest

Earlier this week, a local court in Faisalabad, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, sentenced 59 top leaders of the main opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to 10 years in jail for participating in protests against the imprisonment of PTI leader and former prime minister Imran Khan in May 2023.

The convicted include several former ministers in Khan’s government (2019-2022) such as Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, and Zartaj Gul. 16 other PTI leaders were sentenced to three-year prison terms.

Several other PTI leaders have also been sentenced to lengthy jail terms for the same reasons in recent weeks.

According to Dawn, the total number of PTI leaders and workers convicted to lengthy jail terms is now in the hundreds and more people are facing the prospect of similar prison terms for what the state calls the May 9 riots.

Following the arrest of former prime minister Khan in what is popularly known as the Toshakhana case (wrongful selling of state gifts) on May 9, 2023, large-scale protests broke out all over the country. In some places, the protesters attacked state officials and army installations as well. 

Though Khan was later released on bail, the state filed numerous cases against the protesters. Thousands of PTI workers and leaders were arrested on charges of rioting, attempted murder, and other criminal charges. A large number of those leaders and workers have spent the last two years behind bars. The recent sentencing is related to some of those cases filed in May 2023.

Targeting PTI

Khan himself was re-arrested in August 2023 after a new government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, filed over a hundred cases against him pertaining to corruption, mismanagement, and even sedition.

Earlier this week, the sons of Aleema Khan, Imran Khan’s sister, were also arrested in connection to the May 9 riot cases.

Khan is still in jail despite being acquitted of several of his cases and securing bail in others. Neither he nor his party was allowed to contest the national elections, which were held in February 2024. Nevertheless, the PTI ran its candidates as independents and emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly.

The PTI leadership have faced state repression whenever they have tried to mobilize their workers and people to demand Khan’s release from prison.

Khan has claimed that the large-scale sentencing of his party leaders and workers “in false cases” are “further exposing the brutality of” the oppressive system in Pakistan. He appealed to his party members to “stand united against this injustice” and fight.

Khan’s accusation that the PTI is being targeted is credible considering the fact that the court acquitted dozens of others accused in the May 9 cases, including the former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, after they either switched sides or publicly denounced Khan and their previous party.

In a protest against what he calls persecution, Khan has asked all his party members to resign from the parliamentary standing committees and boycott the elections, which will be necessary to fill the posts left vacant by the convictions of PTI members of the national and provincial legislatures.

Democracy hangs in the balance

Several other PTI and opposition leaders denounced the court verdicts and the arrest of Aleena Khan’s sons, claiming they further erode the credibility of the political system in the country.

“The arrest of Aleema Khan’s sons is yet again another attack on the democratic fabric of Pakistan that is at best moth eaten but more realistically completely dissolved,” Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, environmentalist and opposition leader, claimed in a post on X.

Bhutto also demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country.

Ammar Ali Jan, leader of the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) called the arrest of Aleena Khan’s sons “another dark chapter of authoritarianism in Pakistan”.

Ali Jan also called for the end of political repression in the country.

Reacting to the arrest of Aleena Khan’s sons, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in a statement on X, said that it is “deeply concerned” by the “further backsliding of citizens’ rights” and expressed “its disappointment in the political and legal system, particularly when it comes to dealing with political opponents.”

The HRCP demanded that “authorities ensure transparency and the rule of law in all such matters.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch