[🇵🇰] PTI News, Updates and Discussion

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Short Summary: PTI News & Discussion
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PTI designates Raoof Hasan as CEC for upcoming intra-party polls​

Decision taken during party’s general body meeting, convened virtually due to the closure of its Central Secretariat

Our Correspondent
January 31, 2024

pti leader raoof hasan photo x raoofhasan

PTI leader Raoof Hasan.

Raoof Saab is almost a dead-ringer for 1970's rock star Ric Ocasek (of "The Cars" fame). Sorry for the off-topic post.

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Pak military courts convict 25 of pro-Khan unrest
Agence France-Presse . Islamabad 22 December, 2024, 01:29

Pakistan military courts have convicted and sentenced 25 people for involvement in pro-Imran Khan unrest last year, the armed forces said Saturday, with the majority handed decade-long prison terms.

Ex-prime minister Khan was arrested in May last year after being ousted from office and mounting an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the nation’s powerful military leaders.

His detention over graft allegations sparked nationwide unrest, some targeting armed forces installations, and prompting rare prosecutions of civilians in military courts.

Amnesty International called the move ‘an intimidation tactic, designed to crack down on dissent’ and said it was ‘contrary to international law’.

Military courts are largely opaque, but after months of confidentiality the military public relations wing named 25 people who have been prosecuted.

All of the convicted are men and 14 have been sentenced to a decade of ‘rigorous imprisonment’, the military said with the remaining 11 set to serve lesser prison terms.

The verdicts were announced just three weeks after the capital Islamabad was gripped by fresh unrest, as tens of thousands of Khan supporters flooded in to demand his release.

The government said at least five security personnel were killed whilst Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party allege at least 10 of their own were shot dead by security forces before crowds retreated.

A military statement did not make clear what crime each person had been convicted of or when, listing only the location of their offence. The shortest sentence meted out was two years.

During the May 2023 unrest Pakistan ‘witnessed tragic incidents of politically provoked violence and arson at multiple places,’ the military statement said.

‘These blatant acts of violence not only shocked the nation but also underscored necessity of checking this unacceptable attempt of political terrorism.’

Former cricket star Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted by parliament in a no-confidence vote.

He blamed the then-head of the powerful military establishment for his downfall. Pakistan’s generals are considered the country’s political kingmakers and have directly ruled the nation for decades at a time.

Khan’s May 2023 detention lasted a matter of days but he was re-arrested three months later and has remained imprisoned since, facing a parade of court cases he claims are politically motivated.

Meanwhile, PTI was targeted by a sweeping crackdown following the unrest, with thousands of grassroots supporters and senior officials arrested.

The 72-year-old was barred from running in February elections, which were marred by rigging allegations.

PTI defied the crackdown to win more seats than any other party, but a coalition of parties considered more pliable to military influence formed a government and shut them out of power.​

A United Nations panel of experts found in September that Khan’s detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’.
 

US, UK, EU condemn Pakistan military court convictions of Khan’s supporters
FE ONLINE DESK
Published :
Dec 24, 2024 14:08
Updated :
Dec 24, 2024 14:08

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The United States and the United Kingdom have expressed deep concern over the recent handing down of convictions by Pakistani military courts to 25 civilian supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan over their alleged involvement in riots last year.

The convictions had previously also been criticised by the European Union and domestic human rights activists, reports AP.

“The United States is deeply concerned that Pakistani civilians have been sentenced by a military tribunal for their involvement in protests on May 9, 2023. These military courts lack judicial independence, transparency, and due process guarantees,” according to a statement released by State Department on Monday.

It asked Pakistan to respect the right to a fair trial and due process.

In London, the foreign office said that “while the UK respects Pakistan’s sovereignty over its own legal proceedings, trying civilians in military courts lacks transparency, independent scrutiny and undermines the right to a fair trial. We call on the Government of Pakistan to uphold its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

The statements were referring to the violence that erupted after Khan’s arrest in Islamabad in May 2023. The former premier was ousted through a no-confidence vote in the parliament in 2022, and he was convicted of corruption and sentenced in August 2023.

Since then, Khan has been behind bars. Khan’s popular opposition party is in talks with the government to secure his release.

The 25 supporters on Monday received prison terms ranging from two years to 10 years, which the army in a statement warned acted as a “stark reminder” for people to never take the law into their own hands.

Khan's opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), has rejected the convictions of civilians, demanding they should be tried in the normal courts if they were involved in the riots.

There was no response from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government to the criticism from the US and the UK, but state-run Pakistan Television on Tuesday showed people welcoming the convictions, saying the punishments were given to people who attacked military installations.

Earlier this month, Khan and dozens of others were indicted by a civilian court on charges of inciting people on May 9, 2023, when demonstrators attacked the military’s headquarters in Rawalpindi, stormed an air base in Mianwali in the eastern Punjab province and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.​
 

Imran Khan, wife jailed in corruption case
Agence France-Presse . Rawalpindi 18 January, 2025, 01:23

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Imran Khan

A Pakistan court convicted former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in a graft case on Friday, sentencing Khan to 14 years in prison.

Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases but his party claims the latest conviction was being used to pressure him into stepping back from politics.

The conviction came a day after PTI leaders again met the government for talks aimed at easing political tensions. The PTI’s chairman also met the chief of the armed forces.

‘I will neither make any deal nor seek any relief,’ Khan told reporters inside the courtroom after his conviction.

The anti-graft court convened in the jail where Khan is being held near the capital Islamabad and convicted the couple for graft linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a welfare foundation they established.

‘The prosecution has proven its case. Khan is convicted,’ said Judge Nasir Javed Rana, announcing a 14-year sentence for Khan and seven years for Bibi.

Faith healer Bibi, who was recently released on bail, was arrested at the court after the conviction, her spokeswoman Mashal Yousafzai said.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said it would challenge the verdict.

Ousted from power by a no-confidence vote in 2022, the former cricket star has since launched an unprecedented campaign in which he has openly criticised Pakistan’s powerful generals.

Analysts say the military’s leaders are Pakistan’s kingmakers, although the generals deny interfering in politics.

‘The decision against Imran Khan was not made by any judicial judge but by a general,’ PTI activist Qadir Nawaz said at a protest in Peshawar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Khan’s powerbase.

‘Such decisions cannot scare Imran Khan or his workers,’ the 54-year-old said at the rally of around 150 people.

Khan maintains all cases against him are politically motivated and designed to keep him from returning to power.

He had been convicted four times since his arrest, with two convictions overturned and the sentences in the other two cases suspended.

He remained in prison over the Al-Qadir Trust case, the longest running against him, and other charges related to inciting protests.

The court’s announcement had been postponed three times, with analysts saying back-room negotiations were being held.

Khan said in a statement posted by his team on social media this month that he was ‘indirectly approached’ about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on Islamabad’s outskirts.

But he has remained defiant, firing off statements railing against the government and promising to fight his battles through the courts.

‘Imran Khan challenged the system that has been entrenched in this country,’ 43-year-old PTI activist Ayesha Bano said at the Peshawar protest.

‘He was fighting a genuine battle for this country,’ she said. ‘We will oppose Imran Khan’s sentencing on every front, no matter the cost.’

Khan’s popularity continues to undermine a shaky coalition government that kept PTI from power in elections last year.

A UN panel of experts found last year that Khan’s detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’.

Khan was barred from standing in February’s election and his PTI party was hamstrung by a widespread crackdown.

PTI won more seats than any other party but a coalition of parties considered more pliable to the military’s influence shut them out of power.​
 

Pakistan’s Imran Khan calls off talks with government after latest conviction
REUTERS
Published :
Jan 23, 2025 17:22
Updated :
Jan 23, 2025 17:22

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Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. Photo : REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/Files

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan called off reconciliatory talks with the government on Thursday, a week after a court handed him a 14-year jail term on graft charges, his party’s chairman said.

Aimed at cooling political instability in the South Asian nation, the talks had started late last year ahead of the judgment in the land corruption case against the 72-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician.

The graft case is the largest that Khan faces in terms of financial impropriety. It involves land given by a real estate tycoon to a welfare institution set up by Khan and his wife in return for illegal favours.

“Khan has called off negotiations,” the party chairman, Gohar Khan, told reporters in comments telecast live by local Geo News TV after he said he met the former premier in jail.

He said Imran Khan conveyed his decision after the expiry of a seven-day deadline he had given to the government to respond to demands he had given last week.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party mainly demands the setting up of two judicial commissions to probe the events that led to his arrest in August 2023, and the violent, opens new tab protest rallies, including one on May 9, 2023, when his supporters rampaged through military offices and installations.

Khan’s removal from office in 2022 stoked the instability, which has worsened with his party leading violent protests to urge his release, and threatens an economic recovery under a $7 billion IMF bailout.​
 

Imran Khan, wife appeal against graft convictions
Agence France-Presse . Islamabad 28 January, 2025, 00:13

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Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi appealed against their convictions for graft on Monday, his lawyer said.

Imran Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases that he claims are politically motivated.

The former cricketing star was sentenced to 14 years in jail and his wife to seven this month in the latest case to be brought against them.

‘We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing,’ Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry said outside Islamabad High Court.

Imran Khan has been convicted four times since his arrest, with two convictions overturned and the sentences in the other two cases suspended.

A special graft court found the pair guilty of ‘corruption and corrupt practices’ over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.

The court hearing for the case was postponed three times and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said earlier it was being used to pressure him into cutting a deal with the government to step back from politics.

Imran Khan alleged before the conviction that he had been ‘indirectly approached’ about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on Islamabad’s outskirts.

Bibi, a faith healer who married Khan shortly before he was elected in 2018, is being held at the same jail as her husband in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, close to the capital Islamabad.

Khan’s popularity continues to undermine a shaky coalition government that kept PTI from power in elections last year.

Even from behind bars, Khan has fired off statements through his legal team railing against the government and promising to fight his battles through the courts.

Sometimes violent protests have paralysed Islamabad in recent months and the party has announced further rallies next month to mark one year since elections that were marred by allegations of rigging.

Imran Khan called off talks with the government last week aimed at easing political tensions.

Ousted from power by a no-confidence vote in 2022, the former cricket star has since launched an unprecedented campaign in which he has openly criticised Pakistan’s powerful generals.

Analysts say the military’s leaders are Pakistan’s kingmakers, although the generals deny interfering in politics.

A UN panel of experts found last year that Imran Khan’s detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’.

Imran Khan was barred from standing in last February’s election and his PTI party was hamstrung by a widespread crackdown.

PTI won more seats than any other party but a coalition considered more pliable to the military’s influence shut them out of power.​
 

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