The Fall of Imran Khan: What finally led to arrest of former Pakistani prime minister?

On Tuesday, Imran Khan was arrested from outside the Islamabad High Court.

Tuesday’s dramatic event comes just a year after the former prime minister and arguably the greatest Pakistani cricketer ever was ousted from power.

Let’s take a look Imran Imran’s ouster, the cases against him, how he escaped in the past and what finally led to his arrest:

Imran’s ouster from power

In April 2022, Imran had been in power over three-and-a-half years, but the warning signs had been flashing for a while.

No Pakistan premier in history has been able to finish a five-year term and Imran proved no different.

However, Imran has the ignominy of being the first prime minister to lose a no-confidence vote.

The role of the Pakistan military cannot be downplayed in his ouster.

Relations between Imran and Pakistan’s powerful military – which his opponents had accused of helping Imran come to power – being on a downhill slide for the past few years.

“He was made by them,” a member of Imran’s party told the BBC. “They were the ones that brought him into power.”

The outlet quoted sources as saying the relationship had soured after the military began questioning Imran’s governance in Punjab.

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Things also came to a head after a tussle between General Bajwa and Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, the ISI director and the man seen as a potential successor.

Bajwa seemingly wanted Hameed replaced – a move Imran resisted for weeks before finally giving in.

The Opposition was watching closely and took the spat as a sign to proceed.

Journalist Kamran Yousaf told the _BBC t_hat the military had been involved in “managing” Imran Imran’s allies and slim majority in government. “Once that support was missing, his downfall was inevitable,” he said.

The first political domino to fall was when Imran’s cabinet colleague and then finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh lost his Senate seat to Yusuf Raza Gilani in March 2021.

After the Opposition pressured Imran to resign, he prevailed in a no-confidence vote.

But the government’s armour was already cracking.

In March 2022, the Opposition was ready to give it another go.

Shehbaz Sharif moved a no-confidence motion against Imran over the country’s economic crisis.

The tabling of the no-confidence motion was approved by parliament.

The then ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf saw almost two dozen lawmakers publicly speak out against Imran.

The government responded by accusing the Opposition of buying votes.

Imran’s regime first tried to sidestep the vote by dissolving Parliament and calling early elections, but the Supreme Court ruling ordered the vote to go ahead.

The drama that unfolded could have been straight out of a movie with the Assembly speaker, an Imran loyalist, resigning at the last minute.

Imran lost his majority in the 342-seat Assembly after his coalition partners and members of his own party abandoned him.

“We will put a balm on the wounds of this nation,” Sharif said immediately after the result was announced.

Imran for his part claimed that a ‘foreign power’ [read United States] had conspired to remove his government.

The many cases against Imran

Since being removed from office, Imran faced a veritable flood of legal cases.

Imran is facing as many as 121 cases across the country, including treason, blasphemy, inciting violence and terrorism.

According to the list, 12 cases of terrorism have been registered against Imran in Lahore and 14 cases have been registered in Faisalabad. Some 22 terrorism cases have been registered against Imran Imran across the country.

An Islamabad court is set to indict Imran tomorrow in the Toshakhana case.

The Toshakhana is a government repository in which elected officials are supposed to keep expensive gifts – which cost more than Rs 30,000 – they receive.

The story came to light after a journalist made inquiries under the right to information law. The government at the time denied the request with several ministers claiming that such a disclosure would hurt relations with other countries.

Shehbaz Sharif claimed in April 2022 that Imran had sold state gifts worth Rs 140 million in Dubai.

“I can confirm that Imran Khan took gifts from Toshakhana and sold them in Dubai for Rs 140 million. Valuable gifts include diamond jewellery, bracelets, watches and sets,” Sharif had claimed.

To which Imran responded, “Mera tohfa, meri marzi (my gift, my choice)”.

In August, the then Opposition, alleging that Imran had not disclosed his gifts appropriately, filed a case seeking his disqualification from parliament.

Imran then wrote to the Election Commission on 8 September accepting that he had sold at least four presents, as per Dawn.

Imran in October was then barred from holding office for five years after the Election Commission of Pakistan found he had ‘unlawfully’ sold state gifts from foreign leaders.

On 19 November, the National Accountability Bureau had taken notice of the alleged non-disclosure of the actual value of gifts received by the former prime minister, his wife, and other cabinet members.

Sources privy to the matter said that there was a discrepancy between the actual value of the gifts received by the former prime minister and the sale.

The inquiry proceedings have revealed that during Imran’s tenure as premier, he retained some state gifts presented to him by various foreign dignitaries.

Imran in March managed to evade arrest with the help of his supporters in the Toshakhana case. When authorities turned up to Imran’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore to arrest the former prime minister, they found their path blocked by multitudes of PTI faithful.

According to India Today, Imran’s supporters fought Pakistan’s police on the streets of Lahore after the PTI called for their followers to turn up in numbers at Zaman Park.

Videos showed police using tear gas on protesters and lathi-charging them and protesters responding with violence.

Authorities were finally left empty-handed and forced to retreat late into the night, while Imran and his lawyers promised the court he would turn up for the next hearing.

According to Indian Express, Imran and other PTI leaders are facing a terrorism case for allegedly vandalising state property in response to Imran being disqualified by the EC.

PTI workers raised slogans against the government in large numbers outside the ECP office.

Protesters in Peshawar blocked a road near Pir Zakordi bridge and Stadium Chowk. Protesters staged a sit-in outside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s office in Sindh, Geo News reported.

Imran was granted interim bail by the Anti-Terrorism court (ATC) judge Raza Jawed till 9 March.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) politician Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha filed the attempt to murder case against Imran.

Ranjha claimed that a policeman attempted to kill him ‘at Imran’s behest’ during protests outside the Election Commission office in October.

The prohibited funding case was filed by estranged PTI founding member Akbar S Babar in the ECP in 2014.

It refers to Imran and the PTI allegedly being funded by UAE ministry of culture head Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, overseas Pakistanis and their companies.

The case was registered by the FIA Corporate Banking Circle.

The case’s First Information Report (FIR) stated that the accused including the former premier violated Foreign Exchange Act and all of the nominated persons were beneficiaries of the private bank account, as per ARY News.

“In September last year, the ECP had issued its verdict in the prohibited funding case — previously referred to as the foreign funding case — against the PTI, which stated that the party did indeed receive prohibited funding,” Dawn reported.

The corruption case for whose hearing he was present at the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday is not included in the list.

Arrest in Al Qadir case

Islamabad police released a statement quoting Inspector General (IG) Akbar Nasir Imran as saying that Imran had been arrested on Tuesday in the Al Qadir case.

According to Business Today, Imran during his stint as prime minister vowed to offer quality education in Punjab.

Imran then created the Al-Qadir University Project Trust and named his wife Bushra Bibi and close aides Zulfiqar Bukhari and Babar Awan office bearers

According to Geo News, the accused allegedly adjusted Rs 50 billion from Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

They are also accused of getting undue benefit in the form of over 458 kanals (23.16 hectares) of land at Mouza Bakrala, Sohawa, to establish Al Qadir University_._

The chairman of the PTI, who travelled from Lahore to the federal capital Islamabad, was undergoing a biometric process at the court when the Rangers broke open the glass window and arrested him after beating lawyers and Khan’s security staff, according to senior party leader Shireen Mazari.

Following Imran Khan’s arrest, Section 144 has been imposed in Islamabad as several PTI workers staged protests across the city and created a riots-like situation, media reports said.

They also blocked roads in Lahore and staged protests, the reports said.

With inputs from agencies

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