'He thinks he's untouchable' – Pakistan minister defends Imran Khan arrest

Pakistan’s data minister has defended the arrest of Imran Khan on the day the Supreme Court dominated it was illegal.

In an unique interview with Sky News, Marriyum Aurangzeb stated: “A person who has defied court, who does not abide by the law, who avoid courts and who thinks he’s untouchable and cannot be questioned, has to be treated the way every citizen is treated.”

But Mr Khan‘s arrest was removed from strange – paramilitary troops taking him from court docket on corruption expenses and sparking a lethal outpouring of anger in opposition to the highly effective army in Pakistan.

Ms Aurangzeb dismissed claims the sudden arrest was a political try to silence the previous prime minister who enjoys vital assist throughout Pakistan after launching a comeback and surviving an assassination try.

“If we wanted to arrest him or silence him because of his popularity, we would not have waited 14 months,” she stated.

The data minister additionally rejected claims that the federal government needs to disqualify Mr Khan from working on this yr’s election.

“Why would we want to do that? Why would any democratic government want to do that?” she stated.

Although, she claimed, Mr Khan did that when he was in cost, “arresting the political leaders, putting them in jail and silencing them in the first month of coming to power”.

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Why the Pakistan unrest issues

Unrest has unfold throughout a number of cities in Pakistan with unprecedented scenes of indignant crowds breaking into army properties.

Some properties of military personnel have additionally been set alight, difficult a robust and sometimes revered army.

Ms Aurangzeb rejected the concept anybody was democratically protesting and accused supporters of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering of “burning ambulances… bridges, the metro, railway stations, the hospitals and the mosques”.

The police, she stated, has in contrast exercised restraint, alongside the army, with a “responsible restraint and withdrawal” throughout the nation.

She stated it was now as much as the High Court to resolve whether or not to grant bail to Mr Khan or not, a court docket which has already declared his arrest as lawful.

Mr Khan is because of seem earlier than the High Court in Islamabad this morning from 10am native time (6am UK time).

It units the stage for an additional dramatic chapter within the Imran Khan story.

But no matter occurs, he nonetheless faces a number of expenses of corruption and contempt of court docket and the specter of one other probably divisive arrest looms massive.