Imran Khan’s Arrest Has Brought Pakistan One Step Closer to the Brink
The Pakistani authorities arrested former PM Imran Khan earlier this month, provoking a violent backlash from his supporters. Pakistan is going through a profoundly dangerous crisis where miscalculation by the main political actors could result in disaster.
Police escort Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan (C) as he arrives at the high court in Islamabad on May 12, 2023. (Aamir Qureshi / AFP via Getty Images)
On May 9, paramilitary forces arrested Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan inside the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Khan was at the IHC for a legal hearing, but he was formally arrested over a different case related to kickbacks and money laundering.
More realistically, the forcible arrest was a response to Khan’s open accusation the previous day against a senior intelligence officer, Faisal Naseer. The former premier accused the officer of orchestrating attacks on Khan’s life. The leveling of this accusation against Naseer was in line with Khan’s dramatic falling out with the Pakistani military leadership over the last year and a half.
Backlash
In response, for at least a few days in central Pakistan, the military faced a measure of comeuppance that was long overdue. Over the last seventy years, the Pakistani ruling bloc — especially its militarized core — has consistently instrumentalized forces and discourses of the conservative right to suppress every progressive stirring in Pakistani society in the name of national security.
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