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About a dozen police and some 35 supporters were reported injured. Tear gas shells and pieces of bricks littered the pavement.
Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party scuffle with riot police officers outside Khan’s residence, in Lahore. An order has been issued for his arrest for failing to appear in court on corruption charges.Credit:AP
The former prime minister has avoided court appearances since November, when he was wounded in a gun attack at a protest rally in the eastern Punjab province, claiming he was not medically fit to travel from Lahore to Islamabad to face indictment.
Last week, he went to Islamabad to appear before three courts, but he failed to appear before the fourth court to face indictment in the corruption case, which is a legal step for starting his trial.
Khan has claimed that the string of cases against him, which includes terrorism charges, are a plot by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discredit the former cricket star turned Islamist politician.
On Tuesday, Sharif told Pakistan’s Geo television that Khan’s arrest was ordered by a court, and it was not political victimisation.
Khan supporters throw stones at riot police officers outside his home in Lahore.Credit:AP
“We will arrest him, and will do it on a court order,” Shahzad Bukhari, deputy-inspector general of Islamabad police, told reporters earlier in Lahore. Later, Bukhari was also lightly injured in the violence and received first aid from police medics at the scene.
However, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a top leader from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said the government was trying to disrupt law and order by sending police to Khan’s house.
“We are ready to find a middle way through talks with police, but we should know what the purpose of today’s police raid is,” he said. “Don’t worsen the situation. Let us sit and discuss what you want,” Qureshi asked the police.
He said Khan could consider voluntarily offering his arrest, “but let us talk first”.
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Fawad Chaudhry, another senior party leader, said Khan’s legal team was in the process of submitting a request to the Islamabad High Court to have warrants against Khan suspended. Khan’s lawyers were also legally challenging the warrants before another Islamabad court Tuesday.
From inside his home, Khan urged his followers to fight on even if he is arrested. “They think this nation will fall asleep when Imran Khan is jailed,” he wrote on Twitter. “You need to prove them wrong.”
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, who is not related to the former leader, said “We will arrest this man on the court order and he ran away to avoid arrest. He said Khan would be produced before the court.
AP, with Reuters