Pakistan Unrest – What Caused it?

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This short introduction into events in Pakistan is by no means complete, but can serve as a starting point for your own research on the subject.

You may have heard that former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been arested while undergoing biometric process at his appearence in Islamabad High Court (IHC) for two court cases.
The arrest was a forceful one. Imran Khan’s lawyer and a body guard were injured, he was ripped from his wheelchair and walked to a car, which took him away to a unknown location.
The immediate and official reason given for this is that a few court cases – it seems there are over one hundred of them – have been filed agains Imran Khan, including corruption allegations, which were the reason for arrest.

Indian Express (India) citing Dawn (Pakistan) writes:

According to Dawn, Inspector General Police Islamabad (IG) Akbar Nasir Khan in a statement said Imran had been detained in the Al-Qadir Trust case, in which the former prime minister and his wife have been accused of receiving “billions of rupees from a real estate firm for legalising a laundered amount of Rs 50 billion.”
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told the media that Imran has been detained in the case after he repeatedly failed to appear before the court despite being issued several notices.
“The arrest has been conducted by the National Accountability Bureau for causing losses to the national treasury,” he added.
Dawn reported that the former prime minister, along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders, are facing a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) inquiry for allegedly “accepting Rs 5 billion and hundreds of kanals (of land) from Bahria Town (an Islamabad-based real estate company) in exchange for protecting the firm in a money laundering case.”
It also said that the money and land was given to the accused through a non-profit organisation, Al-Qadir Trust, which had only two trustees: Imran and Bushra Bibi. The settlement between the PTI government and the company reportedly caused a loss of 190 million pounds to the national exchequer, the news outlet said

Indian Express

The arrest warrant was issued by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), a national institution established to fight corruption and looks like this:

However, this is the official version, that the Pakistan authorties like to proffer to anyone who would listen.

There’s also inoffical reasons given by many PTI members, that go something like this:

💥One year ago (April 9, 2022), Imran Khan was ousted as Pakistan’s Prime Minister after serving just 3 years in office.
How did it come to that? The main reasons and stages:

1️⃣ One of the very first triggers was Imran Khan’s refusal to meet with CIA director Burns on his unannounced visit to Pakistan. Burns was told by the Prime Minister House that he needed to schedule a meeting;

2️⃣ Imran Khan’s ‘Absolutely Not’ to US bases in Pakistan for any sort of action against Afghanistan;

3️⃣ A local conspiracy by then Army’s Chief General Bajwa after Khan’s clash with mighty Military establishment over appointments within Army & accountability;

4️⃣ The US assumption that ‘Khan is anti-US’ for having an independent foreign policy. Donald Lu allegedly tells Pakistan diplomats that Imran Khan is unacceptable to the US;

5️⃣ Imran Khan criticises European ambassadors in Pakistan for making public statements regarding Pakistan’s neutral stance on Russia-Ukraine war;

6️⃣ A vote of confidence motion is submitted against Khan by alliance of 12 opposition parties, which Khan alleges were bribed;

Since then, Imran Khan is no longer Prime Minister of Pakistan, but has survived two assasination attempts and plastered with court cases.

Officials and members of Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have declared the arrest of Khan to be a ‘red-line’ and ‘anti-constitutional and i llegal’, thus immediately after Khan’s ‘arrest’, which many call ‘abduction’ by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers, protests started.
While PTI officials called for the protests to be peacefully conducted, violence has occured, official army residences and cantonements (cantt) were entered, cars and offices burnt, and allegedly the security forces made use of firearms, injuring at least 13 people in Lahore.
The Government of Punjab has tried to invoke ‘Section 144’ which is a law that allows them to outlaw protests under threat of fines and prison terms to re-establish order.
The protests take place in all of the countries. There were clashes in Karachi, Sindh, and Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, among other places.
The protests are primarily directed against the Pakistan Army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which are thought to be behind the allegations, the coup in 2022 and the arrest.
Where Imran Khan is held and whether he is safe and sound is not known at the moment.