Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has emerged as the mastermind of the violence on military installations on May 9 last year based on the accounts of eyewitnesses who have given statements against the 71-year-old founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), top sources close to the Pakistani establishment told News18.
Sources said none of these eye-witnesses have been promised any concession offer directly or indirectly.
On May 9 last year, PTI workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Jinnah House (Lahore Corps Commander House), Mianwali Airbase, and the ISI building in Faisalabad. The Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi was also attacked by the mob for the first time.
However, Khan has maintained that his party was being targeted over May 9 violence and that the violent protests targeting the Corps Commander House and the GHQ of the Pakistan Army were a part of the ‘London agreement’, in which, he alleges, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif is being favoured by the powerful Pakistan Army.
Cases against more than 100 people have already concluded at a conviction rate of 90%. The judgments of these cases, however, are not being pronounced and are likely to be clubbed with the judgement of military courts. According to sources, once the country’s supreme court gives permission, the decisions of the military courts will be issued.
“The establishment is taking this very seriously and harsh punishment will be given to those who are behind this attack,” an official said.
Imran Khan has been convicted four times since 2022, when he was ousted from power. His sentences total 34 years and will be served concurrently.
A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted and sentenced Khan and his wife to seven years in prison on a charge that their 2018 marriage violated the law. The latest verdict follows another case in which Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for corruption.
Imran Khan’s mounting legal troubles come ahead of the February 8 parliamentary elections in which the PTI chief has already been disqualified because of graft convictions while his party is struggling to run an election campaign.
Khan is currently serving multiple prison terms at Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, where his trials were held because of security concerns.
He is embroiled in more than 150 legal cases, including inciting people to violence after his arrest in May 2023.
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