By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan rallied outside his home on Monday to prevent police from arresting him on terrorism charges related to a televised speech over the weekend. .
Police on Saturday filed charges against Kahn, a former cricket star, for what they said was a threat in a speech in which he spoke about the police torture of an aide facing sedition charges for inciting a riot in the armed forces.
“We will not spare them,” Khan said in the speech, in which he named the police chief and judge involved in the case against his aide. “We’ll sue you.”
Police cited that comment in a report seen by Reuters.
“The purpose of the speech was to spread terror among the police and the judiciary and prevent them from doing their duty,” the police said in the report.
Dozens of supporters gathered outside Kahn’s home on Monday, chanting anti-government and police slogans.
“All these things show that we don’t have the rule of law in Pakistan,” he said, adding that he has 16 cases against him, in addition to this latest terrorism case.
Later in the day, a court granted Khan three days of pre-arrest bail, his lawyer Babar Awan told reporters, prompting protesters to start dispersing.
Khan was prime minister from 2018 until April of this year, when he was forced to resign after losing a vote of confidence in parliament. Since then, he has been campaigning for new elections.
Khan appeared at the main gate of his home to wave to supporters, according to a tweet posted on his party’s official Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) page.
The use of anti-terrorism laws as a basis for investigations against political leaders is not uncommon in Pakistan, where the Khan government has also used them against opponents and critics.
(Additional reporting by Syed Raza Hassan in Karachi)
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