Pakistan court orders Imran Khan’s release on bail, lawyer says

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani court ordered former prime minister Imran Khan’s release on bail for two weeks, his lawyer said on Friday, following an arrest that sparked deadly unrest in the country.

Khan arrived amid tight security at the court in Islamabad on Friday, as his supporters clashed with police elsewhere in the capital, broadcaster Geo TV reported.

“They had no justification to arrest me. I was abducted. It seems as if there was a law of jungle,” Khan told British news outlet The Independent at the Islamabad High Court.

Khan, 70, an international cricket hero-turned-politician, was in court for a hearing on his petition challenging the anti-corruption action against him, on orders of the top court.

His arrest aggravated instability in the country of 220 million people at a time of severe economic crisis – with record high inflation, anaemic growth and delayed funding from the International Monetary Fund – and escalated Khan’s tussle with the powerful military.

Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested for violence since Khan’s detention on Tuesday and at least eight have been killed.

The unrest prompted the government to call in the army to help restore order.

The army has warned Khan’s supporters it will respond firmly if there were further attacks on its assets, saying in a statement on Wednesday that the violence on its installations was “pre-planned” and ordered by his party leadership.

Khan has blamed the military for his ouster from office in April 2022 in a parliamentary no-confidence vote.

On their part, his opponents say Khan was brought to power through a rigged election in 2018 by the generals.

The army, which remains Pakistan’s most powerful institution, having ruled it directly for close to half its 75-year history through three coups, has denied Khan’s allegations. REUTERS, AFP