An accountability court in Islamabad on Sunday granted an eight-day physical remand of the PTI’s founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a fresh Toshakhana case.
The court issued the order within 24 hours of the sessions court order of Khan and his wife’s acquittal in Iddat case.
Accountability court judge Muhammad Ali Warraich heard the NAB plea for remand. Counsels for Khan and his wife, Chaudhry Zaheer Abbas, and Usman Gul, opposed this remand, but it was granted with an order to produce them on July 22.
The NAB launched this fresh case against the couple for keeping and selling illegally 10 valuable gifts from Toshakhana.
The NAB report states Khan is accused of taking and selling seven watches, diamonds, and gold jewelry unlawfully.
Meanwhile, Lahore police team reached Adiala to interrogate the former prime minister in 11 cases registered against him regarding the May 9 riots.
Khan was earlier granted relief by the top courts under the 190 million pounds case, cipher case, and Toshakhana cases after he was found guilty in the lower courts.
The last against him was the Iddat case in which their conviction was set aside on Saturday. Right after the couple was released, the NAB team reached the spot and arrested them again in the new case.
In another move, the PTI’s activist Sanam Javed was arrested again just hours after she was acquitted by a local court of charges the FIA framed. Islamabad police took her into custody shortly after her release when she arrived at the office of her lawyer.
Earlier, a district and sessions court in Islamabad dismissed the case against her over tweets on social media platform X.
Previously, a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) led by Justice Asjad Javed Gharal discharged Ms. Sanam from the Gujranwala case. After the LHC ordered her release, the FIA arrested her from Central Jail Gujranwala on Saturday. She has now been arrested for the fourth time.
She is facing several cases including Zaman Town vandalism, PML-N house fire, Race-course police station case, and others after the May 9 riots were triggered across Pakistan and after Khan was arrested. The PTI’s former MNA Aalia Hamza was also re-arrested and another PTI’s MNA has been missing since yesterday.
Both women were earlier arrested in a case of torching a police station in Mianwali. After their bail in this case, they were arrested in a case in Gujranwala. The LHC’s judgment noted the repeated arrest of the petitioner after her release was deemed an attempt to undermine the judicial process.
Yesterday again instead of complying with the court orders, Sanam was arrested. She was allegedly involved in creating a law-and-order disturbance and attacking Jinnah House – the Lahore Corps Commander’s house.
This is how a scuffle over Imran Khan is going on. This is going on between the state institutions without realization how this is undermining the society of Pakistan. These institutions are the judiciary and the military establishment. Both are the most important pillars of any state but in Pakistan their polarization is visible. How will it all come to an end is not known particularly when the government and presidency are not interested.
They could play a pivotal role in addressing this increasing polarization between the state institutions but they preferred being spectators. The government and presidency are not intervening, the courts are committed to providing relief to Khan, Khan is not ready to negotiate and the military is not ready to comprise or get Khan released. This is the whole scenario. Who draws what from it is not known, but it is weakening Pakistan? Isn’t it food for thought for all that has been no disgrace to the judiciary, military, and any political party, but now over Mr. Khan it exists? Only a fool can deny this fact otherwise it exists.
There is a divide between the courts. The lower courts book Khan and the top courts provide him relief. The PTI launched character assassination campaigns against the judges of the top courts on social media. It launched an anti-military campaign that was never witnessed before to this level. The public is divided; some favoring the courts and some accusing them of partiality. The public is divided over the sanctity of the military; Some hail it and some accuse and abuse it over the alleged persecution of Khan.
After the PTI was brought to power, gaps in the political filed were widened. Now the polarization between the politics is visible to an extent that was never experienced before. Every political party stands on one side and the PTI alone stands on the other. What has been going on between these two groups, the minds of youth are getting more corrupt in terms of moral values and ethics. Can a society survive with such a level of polarization? Given the situation, one thing is obvious a society cannot move forward in which the decisions of the courts are not respected. Why didn’t the decisions of the courts are implemented? It shows either it is powerless, doesn’t respect courts, or it is managed from some other quarters.
If the courts have decided that Khan is innocent, why are new cases launched every day? Does it not reflect that the courts’ decisions carry no value for some others? If the politicians including of the PTI had not come into power on the shoulders of the military establishment, the situation might have been different. If the courts had not been a party to the military establishment when elected governments were ousted, the situation have been different too. If the military establishment had not engineered the elections, its respect would have been greater. If the politicians were concerned more about the national interest than the personal ones, their respect have been much more. If the government and the presidency had played their role at the beginning this polarization would not be witnessed at this level.
The language and temperament of politicians help shape societies. Have the politicians ever visited this area? A society cannot flourish in which the mandate of a political party is not respected; it is a fact going on without realization. If Khan was given this mandate, he should have the right to form his government. He was brought into power with so must struggle and engineering, and now when he was given this mandate without all that, it was not respected. The defense of a country is strong when its people stand with their forces. Political stability is the core of an economically healthy society. All this must be realized if we are interested in a prosperous Pakistan. Mr. Khan can help improve the situation if he holds talks for the sake of Pakistan. The government can restore its image by playing a positive role. The military can also restore its image among all if, from its side, the political engineering is stopped. The court’s image is linked with the independence of the judiciary, impartiality, and not being the part of politics. Khan also needs to make serious efforts to hold talks, if he is more interested to save this society.
(By Rana Kashif)
