Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister who is running for another term despite dozens of corruption cases pending against him, called for nationwide protests on Saturday night.
He was released from jail on Friday by order of the Pakistani Supreme Court after his arrest on Tuesday launched a week of violent and deadly demonstrations.
“Freedom does not come easily. You have to snatch it. You have to sacrifice for it,” Khan said in a speech Saturday night from his home in Lahore, broadcast via YouTube.
Khan doubled down on his criticism of the influential Pakistani military, which is usually a kingmaker in elective politics and has staged three outright coups since Pakistan became an independent nation in 1947.
“The army chief’s actions have made our military bad. It is because of him, not because of me,” Khan said, referring to top commander Gen. Asim Munir.
Many observers believe Khan’s allegations that the army is trying to keep him from power or assassinate him were insults for which the army wanted to punish him. Khan directly accused military leaders of orchestrating his arrest in interviews he gave after his release on Friday.
“It’s not the security agencies. It’s one man, the Army chief. There is no democracy in the Army. The Army is getting maligned with what is happening,” Khan told the BBC on Friday, suggesting Munir believes Khan will fire him if he regains the prime minister’s office.
“Without any doubt, the military is behind my arrest. Pakistan is now being run by the army chief. The crackdown on us is by the army chief,” he told the UK Guardian.
“They’re petrified. They know that we will sweep the elections, so they’ve been looking for an excuse to put me in jail,” he said.
The Pakistani military responded to Khan’s address on Saturday night by insisting its senior leaders and Gen. Munir have “complete trust in democracy” and there is “no question of martial law.”
Khan insisted no one from his PTI party was involved in destructive attacks on military facilities during last week’s riots, implying the assaults were some sort of false-flag operation. He called for a thorough investigation of the riots and insisted he had nothing to do with them since he was stuck in jail at the time.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hit back at Khan for slandering the military and attempting to destabilize the country.
“This is the same mindset that falsely accused patriotic army officers of their murders, and spun false stories of ciphers and foreign conspiracies. This is anti-nationalism and the manifestation of the real ambitions of the terrorist masterminds,” Sharif said.
Sharif said Khan fears Gen. Munir because he was formerly chief of the ISI, Pakistan’s notorious intelligence service, and Munir knows a great deal about the alleged corruption of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, from his days as intelligence director.
Raj Riaz Ahmad Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, went further on Monday and called for Khan’s execution.
“Imran Khan should have been hanged publicly, but the courts are welcoming him as if he was his son-in-law,” Raj Riaz complained.
“If the judges are so happy with this Jewish agent, they should join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. They have some vacant seats in the party. Going forth, they should fight elections on PTI’s ticket. In their place, those judges should be brought in who can give justice to the poor,” he said.
“Jewish agent” is a smear that goes all the way back to Khan’s early days in politics, when he supposedly fell under the sway of powerful Jewish interests during his days as a playboy cricket star. His first wife, and mother of his two sons, was a Jewish film producer named Jemima Goldsmith. Goldsmith has been subjected to a great deal of antisemitic abuse, but she also has ardent admirers in Pakistan.
When Goldsmith tweeted, “Finally, sense has prevailed!” in response to Khan’s release on Friday, some of his supporters said he made a big mistake by letting her go. The same wing of Khan fandom tends to hold his current wife responsible for leading him into the morass of corruption allegations that have dogged his comeback campaign.
Gen. Munir issued a public warning to Khan and his party on Saturday that no further assaults on the military would be allowed.
“The armed forces will not tolerate any further attempt of violating the sanctity and security of its installations or vandalism and resolved to bring to justice all the planners, abettors, instigators and executors of vandalism on the Black Day of 9th May,” Munir said, referring to the riots that broke out after Khan’s arrest last Tuesday.
On Monday, the National Assembly passed a resolution condemning the Pakistani Supreme Court for ordering Khan’s release. Supporters of Sharif and his governing coalition, the Pakistan Democratic Alliance, marched in the streets to denounce the court and its chief justice, Umar Ata Bandial, whom critics accuse of showing preferential treatment to Khan.
“The chief justice and a few of his cronies are disgracing the judiciary like never before. Their justice seems to be serving one leader only,” a pro-Sharif demonstrator said. Many of his fellow protesters demand Bandial’s resignation.
Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, was granted bail on Monday and released until May 23. She has been implicated in the same corruption case that was invoked to arrest her husband on Tuesday. Khan, who accompanied Bibi to her bail hearing, accused the government of trying to “humiliate” him by throwing his wife in jail.