The Pakistani military establishment's age-old script is back and seeing yet another remake, with ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan playing the targeted lead.
The former PM faced the inevitable after being arrested on corruption charges and sentenced to three years in prison as well as disqualified from holding office for the next five years. This is just one of the many charges levied against him since his ouster.
Unsurprisingly, the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition has been labouring to neutralise Imran Khan and his support base since taking office in April 2022 after calling for a Vote of No Confidence.
Since then, Khan's show of street power and popular support has only added to the status quo’s frustration, which resulted in a no holds barred approach to quell dissent.
All expendable state force has been engaged to isolate the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman politically. After the first arrest in May failed and was declared illegal by the Supreme Court, this arrest presents itself as the culmination of months of state repression.
More than 150 cases are currently filed against the former PM, including everything from trumped-up charges of terrorism to murder. These frivolous cases represent age-old tactics used by the establishment to remove several previous civilian leaders who have fallen out of favour with the military.
The case that landed Khan in Attock jail is locally known as the and pertains to state gifts purchased by the ex-PM and later allegedly sold by Khan's aides, totalling $500,000.
"The accused has committed the offence of corrupt practices by making and publishing false statements/declarations,” Judge Humayun Dilawar wrote in his court order.
As per the , “corrupt practices”, along with "publishing false statements", also includes arbitrary charges of "exercising undue influence" and "persuading persons to vote." Judge Dilawar wrote, "His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt."
According to Khan's legal team, the trial court rejected the witnesses presented by Khan and denied them the right to speak on his behalf. The majority of these witnesses were tax consultants willing to explain the technicalities of the declaration and make the case that there was no intentional concealment or false statements.
Reports about the presiding Judge's bias against the accused also came to light when questionable were shared by the legal team requesting a transfer to another court but to no avail.
Overseas PTI supporters recorded their outside Hull University after Judge Dilawar flew to the campus for a training course on human rights and the rule of law a day after delivering the verdict.
The ambiguous nature of the court proceedings calls much into question, and the continued intimidation of Khan's lawyers attests to the political nature of this conviction. One of his lawyers, Naeem Panthoja, was arrested days after the ex-PM's arrest, while a fake police report was filed against Sher Afzal Khan Marwat and Umair Niazi by the Attock district police.
Sher Khan Marwat also tweeted that he received threats to his life, including an attempted.
Meanwhile, the United States remains entirely silent on the complete disintegration of law and order in Pakistan. The state department sounds like a broken record as they continue to chant, "This is Pakistan's internal matter" – unexpected from the nation that masquerades as the champion of human rights and democracy.
The silence may be put into context in light of the by The Intercept publishing the leaked cypher where the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, expressly conveyed Washington's desires to remove Imran Khan from office or this matter would be dealt with 'head on.'
In March 2022, weeks before his ouster, Imran Khan shared that he had received a copy of a cypher, which contained details of the conversation between two US diplomats and Pakistan's US ambassador.
Khan claimed that the US had shared their discontentment with his government and encouraged his removal, in which case 'all will be forgiven.'
The ex-PM was ridiculed for contriving an elaborate conspiracy, using popular anti-American sentiments, to rally the public to his cause.
But the recent Intercept story, which came out soon after Khan's arrests, has reopened this critical debate. Till now, no officials in Washington or Islamabad have categorically denied the contents of the leaked cypher.
In Pakistan, a narrative is already being spun to hold Imran Khan and his party responsible for the leak, possibly to add another damning charge to his collection.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah called it a "sinister, treacherous and seditious act" while hinting that Khan might be accountable for it and, "if found guilty, should be tried under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).”
The journalists responsible for breaking the cypher leak story denied that their source had any affiliation with PTI.
It is also worth noting that the establishment, using the outgoing puppet regime, recently proposed amendments to the OSA, expanding the net of potential offences to be tried under the act.
Whether the Intelligence Agencies in Pakistan are solely responsible for the ouster (and what has followed since) or worked in collusion with the Biden administration, one thing is clear: there is no intention of letting Imran Khan contest the next elections.
Despite being behind bars and disqualified from holding public office, this turn of events has only strengthened the support Khan enjoys from the Pakistani public.
And while the roads are emptier after the PDM government, at the behest of the establishment, succeeded in intimidating the public using mass arrests and illegal abductions, public sentiment continues to favour Imran Khan.
Ifra Javed is a London School of Economics graduate, currently working as a researcher and lecturer at the Lahore School of Economics.
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