A week of turmoil

Writer’s note: As Imran Khan was en route to Islamabad for a court hearing on Saturday, March 18, the Punjab Police launched an operation in Zaman Park. They bulldozed the gate of Khan’s house, and unaccompanied by lady police personnel entered the premises where Khan’s wife Bushra bibi was alone with her female domestic staff.

The Punjab Police mercilessly beat with batons every male staff member they found within the premises of Khan’s residence.

Pakistan media is banned from airing any statement of Imran Khan.

Pakistan’s TV channels, social media journalists and international broadcasters are doing live coverage of the Zaman Park operation. The images of a Hyundai bulldozer, manned and supervised by the Punjab Police, demolishing the main gate and wall of Pakistan’s former prime minister and national icon Imran Khan’s house will haunt the current government and their enablers for a very very long time.

After sunset on March 17, 2023, the Lahore High Court approved protective bail for Imran Khan in nine cases until March 24 and March 27, respectively.

After his ouster on April 10, 2022 through a meticulously executed vote of no-confidence, in eleven months, former prime minister Imran Khan who was not removed because of any allegation of financial and/or other corruption is currently facing ninety-four cases that include allegations of blasphemy, murder, sedition, terrorism, and corruption. One sixer is required for the completion of his FIR century.

What Lahore witnessed on Tuesday, March 15, 2023, was a rare phenomenon in a country that is used to seeing its elected prime ministers being disqualified and removed and exiled and jailed and sentenced and killed and hanged. Despite strong reactions of condemnation and unacceptance of the blows to the Constitution of Pakistan and slogans of vote-ko-izzat-do and supremacy of democracy and mujhe-kyon-nikala and demands of accountability of generals and judges, nothing happens until a new deal is made with those who were accused, in the first place, of engineering the removal and expulsion of elected leaders. The victims become the allies of the perpetrators. Their supporters nod their heads and chant their loyalty. But there is a history of absence of any real public reaction that changes the face of the story being written that day, history being recorded for posterity.

What Lahore witnessed on Tuesday, March 15, 2023 will find its place in dark words in the thick volume of the convoluted history of the attacks on Pakistan’s always-tenuous democracy, persecution of political opposition and human rights violations. Hundreds of personnel of the Islamabad and Lahore Police and Rangers appeared on the Mall Road, all roads leading to Zaman Park and in Zaman Park to arrest Khan for his absence in an Islamabad court hearing in a corruption case. Thousands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers and supporters, some already in the area and others arriving from Lahore and other parts of Punjab and other provinces, became the human block between Khan and the law enforcement agencies.

After hours of standoff in which countless PTI supporters were beaten and tear-gassed in the presence of TV and phone cameras, and several police personnel were injured, the LEA operation ended following a Lahore High Court order for the cessation of mayhem in Zaman Park.

The PTI worker and supporter have rewritten the rules of political support. The PTI worker and supporter do not merely stand with their leader when he is in power but are with him every step of his journey of fighting the rotten system that benefits the entitled few. The PTI worker and supporter are not just chanters of slogans, they are doers. The PTI worker and supporter believe in the power of vote, in the supremacy of democracy. The PTI worker and supporter are not only rally attendees, they stand and march in protest, taking baton hits on their bodies, breathing in a fog of tear gas. The PTI worker and supporter go beyond the words of condemnation and unacceptance of the wrong done to their leader as they stand outside his home for weeks, becoming a human shield between him and those in power whom they consider unjust and brutal.

All parties wish for workers and supporters whose loyalties are beyond the allure of money, a party position, and some other material opportunity. All disqualified leaders hope to see their supporters standing with them for as long as it takes. All ousted prime ministers expect an organic public reaction against the injustice done to them. But nothing happens beyond superfluous gestures of short-lived solidarity. Khan’s supporters have rewritten the rules of how an enlightened electorate stands with their leaders.

And that is what has stunned Khan’s opponents, currently in power, and those who brought them into power. They are resorting to acts that political analysts and and even detractors of Khan look at as tactics of pressure and terror to dissuade him from demanding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the date for general elections due this year. Even the invisible gloves are off, no rules of rational political engagement are applicable. Blaming Khan for the cases against them and their subsequent jailing once upon a time, they bay for his blood now. The witch-hunt is blatant to ensure his political irrelevancy.

Today, the widespread belief in Pakistan is that the ninety-four cases are not substantial accusations but pure vendetta to teach Khan a lesson and guarantee his lifelong ineligibility for prime ministerial office.

Law is equal for all, and Imran Khan, despite his current status of being the most popular leader in Pakistan, is not an exception to that rule. Needless to reiterate that he should be present at all his court hearings and respecting a court verdict is his responsibility as a law-abiding citizen of Pakistan. Khan seems to be cognizant of these realities as is apparent from his constant reassurances of upholding judicial decisions. What is problematic, on various levels, is the daily addition to the cases against him, making it physically impossible for him to be present in different courts in different cities in different provinces.

In addition to the number of cases, almost all of them deemed bogus as per the PTI leadership and legal team, there is the unambiguous threat to Khan’s life after having survived an assassination attempt on November 3, 2022. Police protection is negligible, and the presence of the massive number of his supporters in the court premises—while a sign of their undying support for him—is a security risk.

Lahore on Friday seems peaceful. That is not an indication that the events of Tuesday will be forgotten any time soon. State brutality on PTI supporters, most of them peaceful while a few, as per the government reports, reacted with attacks on the police with sticks and stones, was beamed across millions of Pakistan’s TV and phone screens. Regional and global media reported the chaos in Lahore.

Khan also spoke to some international journalists, giving his side of the story as he was being labelled a “fitna that must be crushed” and his supporters as “unruly, senseless violent mobs” by the Pakistan Democratic government’s ministers and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

On March 15, 2023, Imran Khan tweeted an image of a table full of empty tear gas shells and bullets: “My house has been under heavy attack since yesterday afternoon. Latest attack by Rangers, pitting the largest pol party against the army. This is what PDM and the enemies of Pakistan want. No lessons learnt from the East Pakistan tragedy.”

On March 15, 2023 Aljazeera reported: “Roads near Zaman Park have been cordoned off using shipping containers, while mobile and internet connectivity is restricted, according to reports coming out of Lahore. Police and paramilitary rangers are dealing with PTI supporters with a heavy hand. TV footage showed law enforcement officials clad in riot gear. PTI workers were seen gathering stones to counter the police. They were also sharing water bottles with each other to protect themselves from tear gas.”

Speaking to CNN Khan said: “They [PDM government] know that even if I go to jail, we [PTI] will sweep the elections. I’m mentally prepared to spend the night in a cell, or I don’t know how many nights. I’m convinced they are going to arrest me because [looking at] the number of police, you would think it’s the biggest terrorist hiding in this house.

Speaking to the AFP news agency after the cessation of the LEA operation Khan said: “The reason why this is happening is not because I broke any law. They want me in jail so that I cannot contest elections.”

In the context of the events of the last eleven months and what unfolded in Lahore on Tuesday, for The Express Tribune I asked PTI General Secretary Asad Umar a few questions.

MT: State’s arrest-Imran Khan operation in Zaman Park earlier this week—how would you describe it, first, as a Pakistani, and then as a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader?

AU: It was the kind of excessive use of force that has not been witnessed by Pakistan before. I would say that May 25 [2022] is the other parallel that comes close to this force unleashed on a political party, a democratic political party. Force unleashed on workers who are innocent civilians. And all that for what? A preposterous case regarding the Tosha Khana gifts, the details of which are now in front of the people of Pakistan? All those who have seen the details of the case are aware that if there is one person amongst the former prime ministers who has complied with the rules it is Imran Khan. Despite that, you use such excessive force on innocent civilians under a preposterous case. It is absolutely abhorrent.

MT: Ninety-four cases and relentless efforts for Khan’s arrest, what is the impetus and end goal of this state galvanisation to jail Imran Khan?

AU: The reason behind these cases is very simple. Over the last eleven months, the way Imran Khan has mobilised the people of Pakistan, it has become very clear to his adversaries—especially after the stunning victories in the Punjab by-elections and then the by-elections in which Khan himself contested—that Imran Khan is politically unstoppable. So what they are trying to do is find means firstly, to bog him down and make him run around, from court to court, responding to these cases, and secondly, if there is any mistake made, pounce on that opportunity and get him disqualified from the electoral process. That is what is behind all of this [cases and efforts to arrest him]; it has nothing to do with the law, it has nothing to do with justice.

MT: Was Imran Khan’s ouster, executed via a vote of no-confidence, an attempt to push him into a literal corner of political isolation and irrelevance?

AU: Imran Khan, despite having been the prime minister, is an outsider to the system. He is relying on the people of Pakistan. He is standing up for the Constitution of Pakistan. He is standing up for the rule of law. And he is standing up, above all, for the people of Pakistan. The corrupt ruling elite that infested the political structure of Pakistan is threatened by him. Everybody who is part of that structure is threatened by him. The claim of the opposition used to be very, very open. They used to say in talk shows that if we allow Imran Khan to complete his five-year term, we would never be able to defeat him. And hence this conspiracy, the regime change conspiracy, to get rid of him.

MT: Pakistan’s reaction to Khan’s ouster is unprecedented. What do you think is behind this historic support for Khan and PTI?

AU: Yes, you are right, it is unprecedented and historic the way the people of Pakistan have stood up for Imran Khan. Prime ministers being dismissed from office is pretty much a routine in Pakistan’s political history, but never before in any past case have we seen the kind of support and mobilisation of the people of Pakistan as they have shown after the ouster of Imran Khan. The reason for that is simple. They can see that Imran Khan’s fight is not for Imran Khan. There are no political legacies being created for his children, no wealth being amassed for his family. His entire fight is for the people of Pakistan. In fact, people have not risen for Imran Khan, they have risen for themselves. The People of Pakistan are asserting their right to control the democratic constitutional process of Pakistan.

MT: Will the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa happen within the Constitution-mandated timeframe?

AU: Well, the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not happening within the constitutionally mandated timeframe. There is already a violation of the Constitution that is taking place. The Supreme Court allowed a minor—not a minor—a few-day transgression for the Punjab election. For the KP election the governor has essentially committed an Article 6 violation by conspiring to go against the Constitution of Pakistan. I have absolutely no doubt that he will be put under an Article 6 trial before it’s all over.

However, no matter how much they try to run away from these elections, do I think ultimately the elections will take place, yes, I think they will. They might be delayed by a couple of weeks to a few weeks based on what has happened so far, but the elections will take place. The people of Pakistan have decided to assert their right to be the real masters of the country. Nothing can deny them this right, and therefore, I’m convinced that there might be a delay of few weeks, but the elections will take place.