Journalist Zarrar Khuhro says police motion proved “clear grounds being manufactured for delaying elections”.
It’s been over 24 hours for the reason that Islamabad Police, flanked by a number of items of the Punjab Police, confirmed up at PTI chief Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore’s Zaman Park to arrest him.
Tv channels have broadcast dwell to the world the chaotic scenes across the former premier’s residence, with legislation enforcers desperately making an attempt to enter the house, however being thwarted every time by diehard PTI supporters, who’ve camped outdoors the doorway.
Movies shared on social media in addition to broadcast on TV confirmed police utilizing water cannons, firing tear fuel and charging at PTI supporters with batons in a bid to disperse them.
The protesters, who quantity within the lots of, have refused to budge, retaliating with sticks and pelting stones on the legislation enforcers, who now embody the Punjab Rangers. Officers say at the least 54 police personnel, together with Islamabad DIG Operations Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari, have been injured within the unrest.
So how tough is it to arrest one man? And why is the PTI making an attempt to stop his arrest? Pakistani Twitter, as at all times, has its personal theories.
‘State within a state’
Lawyer Reema Omer tweeted that there was no ethical or authorized justification for “Imran Khan not showing in courtroom and repeatedly evading arrest”. She added that the PTI chief’s actions had been yet one more try at making a “state inside a state” that might lead the nation into civil conflict.
Not everybody agreed together with her although. Journalist Atika Rehman spoke for everybody when she stated she’d misplaced depend of the variety of instances the state had tried to arrest Imran and failed.
In the meantime, journalist Mubashir Zaidi tweeted that the PTI chief had misplaced the chance to face tall as a politician by not popping out and presenting himself for arrest. “Political leaders lead from the entrance, not take human shields like cult leaders,” he wrote.
Alternatively, journalist Sahar Habib Ghazi expressed shock at journalists and analysts who “largely ignore or minimise Khan’s concern that he’ll be killed in custody — his motive for not giving himself up for arrest”.
“Pakistani politics is again to the 90s — divided, hateful, vengeful, run by vendettas & rhetoric, serving probably the most highly effective who turned land, housing societies & personal industries into an untaxed money cow,” she wrote.
Anchorperson Kamran Khan additionally termed the technique to arrest Imran “totally silly”. He added that legislation enforcers’ actions had been offering Imran “non cease protection [from] Lahore to Los Angeles”.
Journalist Zarrar Khuhro prompt that the police motion proved that “clear grounds [were] being manufactured for delaying elections”.
“If elections are delayed past constitutionally decreed limits, as determined in SC judgement, then you haven’t any proper to speak of parliament, course of or to sentence violations of that course of sooner or later,” he warned.
Anchorperson and columnist Arifa Noor termed it “our collective failure” that there have been so many incidents by which the “state faces it’s personal folks in a violent present down”.
Lawyer Asad Rahim, in the meantime, took exception to the usage of the the time period “human shields” for PTI supporters by some commenting on the episode.
“… contemplating how the time period ‘human shields’ is utilized by neo-Nazi hacks to justify state violence in opposition to defenceless civilians — usually in conflict zones — the standard suspects in Pakistan could wish to suppose twice earlier than selecting up language that reveals an excessive amount of about themselves.”
Header picture: Screengrab from Twitter video posted by Musa Virk/ Reuters