Info minister refutes news reports about imposition of emergency

Marriyum Aurangzeb says no such decision was taken in the federal cabinet meeting chaired by PM Shehbaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Friday rejected rumours regarding the imposition of an 'emergency' in the country.

The statement was made in response to media reports suggesting that the government was contemplating declaring a state of emergency in light of the political turmoil following the arrest of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

“The reports circulating in the media regarding the imposition of emergency in the country are baseless” and no such decision was taken in the meeting of the federal cabinet, the minister said in a statement.

She urged the media to verify facts before airing or publishing any news.

The federal cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, issued a strong condemnation against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial for his "extraordinary intervention" in the arrest of the former premier. The cabinet deemed the intervention as "misconduct" on the part of the top judge.

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According to the federal cabinet, Imran Khan's arrest was carried out in compliance with the Constitution, the law, and legal procedures in the "open and shut case of corruption and corrupt practices".

The cabinet reiterated its stance that the CJP's interference was unjustifiable and condemned it in the strongest possible terms. It denounced the CJP's interference as "misconduct".

Marriyum's remarks come a day after the top court came to Imran Khan's rescue as it declared his arrest by the country's top graft-buster from the premises of the IHC illegal and directed immediate release of the PTI chief.

Dozens of troops of paramilitary Rangers on Tuesday broke into an office of the IHC and whisked Imran Khan away in an armoured vehicle in a whirlwind raid while executing the arrest warrant issued against the former premier by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

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The PTI on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court against Imran’s arrest as violent protests erupted across the country after the development — protests that involved attacks on security personnel and arson of military and civil properties.

In a three-page written order, the apex court bench noted that the manner of execution of the arrest warrant – issued by the NAB chairman on May 1 in the Al-Qadir Trust case – within the premises of the Islamabad High Court against the petitioner was invalid and unlawful.

Khan, 70, is a cricket hero-turned-politician who was ousted as prime minister in April 2022 in a parliamentary no-confidence vote and who is Pakistan's most popular leader, according to opinion polls.

PTI supporters have stormed military establishments, set ablaze a state broadcaster building, smashed buses, ransacked a top army official's house, and attacked other assets, leading to nearly 2,000 arrests and the army being deployed for help.

At least eight people have been killed in the violence that has worsened the country's instability and doused hopes of resumption of a crucial International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, according to Reuters.

The army, which remains Pakistan's most powerful institution, having ruled it directly for close to half its 75-year history through three coups, has warned against further attacks on its assets and has called the violence "pre-planned".