Pakistan jails opposition leader and other senior figures from Imran Khan's party on ‘terrorism' charges
Those sentenced on Thursday – and therefore immediately disqualified from serving in parliament – include the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan.
A total of 108 officials from Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were jailed by an anti- terrorism court in Pakistan 's Faisalabad city. Other prominent figures who were sentenced include Shibli Faraz, Hamid Raza and Zartaj Gul according to Pakistan 's leading daily newspaper Dawn.
The case relates to the unrest that gripped Pakistan on 9 May 2023 when supporters and workers from PTI staged major protests over Mr Khan's arrest on corruption charges. The demonstrations ultimately descended into violent riots where military infrastructure and other state-owned buildings were vandalised. At least 10 people died in the capital Islamabad and in the aftermath around 4,000 people were arrested.
Mr Khan's supporters, who accused the country's powerful military of orchestrating his 2022 ousting as prime minister through a no confidence vote, targeted an airbase, multiple cantonments, the residence of a senior general, and the army headquarters.
Thursday's verdict by the anti-terrorism court is the latest in a wave of prosecutions targeting PTI members and the party's most senior leadership. Mr Khan himself has remained in jail for almost two years.
Thursday's verdict came a week after the same court convicted and sentenced eight PTI members, including officials from the party's previous provincial government in Punjab such as Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, Mehmoodur Rashid and Umar Sarfraz Cheema, to 10 years in jail.
Mr Khan faces a separate trial on similar charges, with prosecutors accusing him and fellow PTI party leaders of instigating the unrest that saw protesters attack government and military sites.
In a statement on the latest convictions, PTI said that it was a 'sad day for democracy', stating that the party's leaders have been 'unjustly targeted in the false flag operation of 9 May'.
As a result, PTI said, the sentenced opposition leaders in both houses of the National Assembly stood disqualified, 'paving way for more members in both houses using precipitous measures to have members elected, from the government side'.
'All this in the name of 9 May incident, based on testimony from the police officers who had supposedly hid under the table, with a disguise, heard the former prime minister Imran Khan, plotting a scheme to incite violence once he's arrested,' the statement read.
Mr Khan, 72, was bailed later in 2023 but then rearrested on 5 August that year. He faces around 150 charges, ranging from corruption to terrorism, some of the most serious of which have already been thrown out by the courts. His party claims all the cases filed against him are politically motivated.
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The Sun
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- The Sun
Our benefits street is like a slum… people flog sex at all hours & I strung up wall of dead rats to deter druggies
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'To make it even worse the whole place floods when we get plenty of rain because the drains are all blocked. 'We are living in a hellhole. It's lawless, the number of rats is immense, the streets are covered with them at night, and the parties that go on until 6am on a weekend are a nightmare. We are living in a hellhole. It's lawless, the number of rats is immense, the streets are covered with them at night, and the parties that go on until 6am on a weekend are a nightmare Kaz Gunn 'The noise here is awful. We get noise abatement people out to take measurements every so often but nothing is ever done about it. 'It's also mobility scooter central. I'd love to have a mobility scooter but can't get one for love nor money, but loads of people have them round here.' Kaz points out a woman zipping by holding a bag of shopping in one hand while gripping the handlebar and a phone pressed to her ear in her other. 'She's not disabled,' Kaz says. 'She's a mum-of-two who lives over there. 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The Independent
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