Pakistani Supreme Court rules arrest of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan illegal

The arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan was declared illegal by the country’s Supreme Court. This was reported on May 11 by the Pakistani TV channel Dawn. According to him, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial criticized the “character of the arrest” of the ex-premier. The Supreme Court has transferred Khan to its jurisdiction, meaning he is now formally arrested by the court and not by economic intelligence, the anti-corruption police agency, Reuters reported. He will spend the night of May 12 in the same place where he was originally detained, while he will be allowed to meet with a limited number of friends and relatives. Judges have not yet announced when he will be released, but on May 12 he was asked to appear before Islamabad’s High Court, Khan’s lawyer Babar Awan told the agency.

Former cricket star Imran Khan, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition Justice Movement (JZM) party, was arrested on May 9 at the High Court building in Islamabad. According to Rauf Hasan, Khan’s spokesman, the politician was detained before the court hearings, in violation of all rules. Khan came to court to hear the case, he was accused of misappropriation of funds from the Al-Qadir Trust family fund, which financed the creation of Al-Qadir University. According to investigators, Khan and his wife embezzled 50 billion Pakistani rupees (about $175 million). In addition, Khan was accused of selling expensive gifts received from foreign delegations, with the subsequent embezzlement of 36 million Pakistani rupees ($127,700). The ex-premier himself denies all accusations and calls them politically motivated.

Following Khan’s arrest, his party’s leadership reached out to supporters via Twitter, calling for mass protests. As a result, by the morning of May 11, 2,000 people were arrested and five were killed. Demonstrators across the country clashed with police, attacked military units and the homes of high-ranking politicians and generals, and set fire to government buildings.

The escalation of Khan’s conflict with the current authorities, Reuters continues, coincided with the deepening economic crisis in Pakistan. Food basket inflation in April 2023 was 40% in annual terms.

Large-scale protests, teetering on the brink of civil war, are now not beneficial to any political force in Pakistan, Boris Volkhonsky, associate professor at the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, is sure. But there is still no need to talk about the support of Khan by the judicial system – the courts are still maneuvering in this matter, and the army will still have the last word. Nevertheless, it can be expected that, as a result, the government will still back down and clothe the criminal case against Khan in a softer form, because the current allegations of corruption are clearly not serious by the standards of Pakistan and look like an attempt by the authorities to find fault with Khan. The dire economic situation due to the pandemic and rising prices for energy products that Pakistan imports have seriously embittered the population, which also affected the nature of the protests. According to Volkhonsky, these problems are not unique to Pakistan and the scenario for the development of the situation is somewhat similar to last year’s protests in Sri Lanka, also provoked by rising energy prices.

The Supreme Court is one of the most important institutions in Pakistan with broad powers, explains Gleb Makarevich, a researcher at the IMEMO RAS. In the history of the country, judges have usually followed the decisions of the executive branch and the army, so the current situation is unusual. The court, the expert recalls, has previously recognized military coups and restrictions on the rights of citizens, guided by the “doctrine of necessity.” The decision, pleasant today, runs counter to the wishes of the army and the government. So far, the situation is in limbo, but it is worth waiting for a response from the government, which has been developing a bill to limit the powers of the Supreme Court for a month to prohibit it from interfering in political processes. So far, the situation has not changed radically, but part of one of the country’s elite groups – the judges – nevertheless sided with Khan. This is the first crack in the still monolithic top. The Pakistani military-led establishment is showing some flexibility, Makarevich says. Khan’s treatment can be described as herbivorous: he was tolerated for a whole year, arrested rudely, but quickly promised to be released. Obviously, this behavior of the ruling elite can be explained by the fact that Pakistan is extremely dependent on the support of international financial institutions, from which there will be no help in case of an aggravation of the situation, Makarevich sums up.