Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Jan has kept his promise and travels to the country’s capital, Islamabad, on Saturday to answer in court for his alleged involvement in a case of possible illicit enrichment as police and protesters stage fresh skirmishes in his fiefdom in the city of Lahore, Punjab province.
The tensions began when the agents carried out the search warrant issued yesterday by a court for the former president’s home, using a crane to break down the barricades set up by Jan’s supporters. At least 20 of them have already been arrested, police sources confirmed to GEO TV.
The search warrant was issued by the Lahore High Court as part of a new investigation into the heavy clashes between his supporters and the police on March 14 and 15, following a chaotic weekend in which security forces again tried unsuccessfully to arrest the former president.
Meanwhile and from his convoy, Jan has declared himself convinced that the police will end up arresting him one way or another. As he has done on so many occasions, the former Pakistani prime minister has pointed to his political nemesis, the also former head of government Nawaz Sharif, as responsible for his hardships. »Punjab Police have started an assault on my house while (his wife) Bushra is alone. Under what law are they doing that?», Jan has protested through his Twitter account.
The former prime minister has stated that »this is all part of the London Plan,» the city where Sharif now lives while appealing a sentence against him for corruption, »where Nawaz the fugitive hopes to return to power.» In an earlier video, Jan said: »I will appear in court knowing that I will be arrested, all because I believe in the rule of law,» reports Dawn.
In the so-called Toshakhana trial, Jan has been accused of hiding in his asset declarations details about some of the gifts he received during his time as prime minister between 2018 and 2022, when he was removed through a motion of censure in Parliament, in the beginning of an all-out battle between the former prime minister and the authorities who now rule the country.
This Saturday the deadline given by an Islamabad court to detain Jan for refusing to appear at previous hearings on this case expires in theory, but the former prime minister’s legal team is convinced that his attendance this Saturday occurs in full compliance with the court order.
In any case, the Toshakhana is one more of the dozens of open cases against Jan, some of them for possible crime of »terrorism» due to constant threats against the current authorities of the country, whom he considers complicit in his fall from grace, given the immense convening power that the former cricket star continues to enjoy.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
