A Pakistani court on Thursday rejected a request by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s lawyers to stay a court order for him to appear in court in a corruption case related to his tenure, a move that increases the likelihood that police will try to arrest him. to the overthrown Prime Minister.
Khan has taken refuge at his home in the eastern city of Lahore, where clashes broke out earlier this week when police tried to stop him after he couldn’t appear in a previous court hearing in the case. Khan, who was ousted from his post last April, faces charges in several legal cases, including the corruption case, and also terrorism, for verbally threatening a judge last year.
He is now due to appear in court in the capital Islamabad on Saturday to face charges that he illegally sold state gifts as prime minister and hidden assets.
Judge Zafar Iqbal ruled against suspending the order after hearing arguments from Khan’s lawyer, Khawaja Haris, and the prosecution. The judge explained his decision by saying that Khan had forfeited some of his rights with “his defiance of his judicial process.”
Also on Thursday, a Lahore High Court extended a pause on the effort to arrest Khan, easing tensions in the city after clashes broke out earlier this week when police tried to detain him. Supporters of his crowded outside Khan’s residence as police fired tear gas and fought baton-wielding officers for two days.
The pause, in effect until Friday morning, was seen as a reprieve for the 70-year-old opposition leader.
The courts also barred Khan and his opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from holding a rally on Sunday before assembly elections in Punjab, where Lahore is the provincial capital.
Thursday’s order sent a wave of relief among Khan’s supporters, although security forces deployed around Khan’s home were still on the scene.
Usman Anwar, the Punjab police chief, said police would “comply with the court order”, without elaborating. Khan has claimed that his expulsion was a conspiracy between his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States. Both Washington and the Sharif government have denied the accusations.
Saad Hassan, a lawyer for Pakistan’s electoral court, said Thursday that Khan has been avoiding court hearings since January. Violence erupted in Lahore on Tuesday when some 1,000 Khan supporters clashed with police as they tried to arrest the former prime minister at his home in the exclusive Zaman Park neighborhood.
Khan’s supporters hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bricks at police. The officers responded by swinging batons, firing tear gas and using water cannons. They failed to arrest Khan.
On Wednesday, Khan said in a video message that he was set to travel to Islamabad on Saturday for a court appearance. He posed for the cameras with stacks of spent tear gas cartridges that he said had been collected from around his home. “What a crime I committed that my house has been attacked like this,” he tweeted at the time.
