Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged Monday that supporters of his predecessor, Imran Khan, who allegedly stormed defense installations during recent nationwide anti-government protests, will be prosecuted in military courts.
Sharif told the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that rioters involved in vandalizing civilian facilities would be tried separately in anti-terrorism courts.
"Now tell me, if this is not outright enmity against the country, what else is it?" he asked while recounting some of the violence against military properties. "Therefore, all these cases will be tried under the Army Act," Sharif said, referring to a platform exclusively used to try military personnel and enemies of the state.
The prime minister's pledge came amid mounting criticism and calls for reviewing the decision to prosecute civilians under the Pakistan Army Act, which critics say denies citizens the right to a fair trial.
Khan, the most popular national politician according to opinion polls, and his opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the country's largest, have pushed back against the charges.
Instead, the 70-year-old former prime minister has blamed intelligence agencies for being behind the violence against army targets. He says they are using the violence to justify a nationwide crackdown on the country's largest political force to keep it out of the elections due in the fall.
Two weeks ago, on May 9, violent nationwide protests erupted after Khan was violently arrested on corruption charges by paramilitary forces outside a court in the capital of Islamabad.
Protesters in several cities gathered outside military buildings chanting anti-army slogans, set military symbols on fire and stormed the residence of a regional army commander. They also clashed with riot police, leaving several people dead and hundreds more injured in several days of demonstrations.
Khan was released on bail after two days in detention. He has accused the Pakistani military chief, General Asim Munir, of being behind his arrest.
Pakistani authorities have since arrested thousands of Khan supporters, including senior PTI leadership. The detainees included both men and women. Police have been accused of sexually harassing female detainees and subjecting others to custodial torture.
More than a dozen PTI leaders and former lawmakers have left the party in support of the military in recent days, a move Khan and independent critics say stemmed from state coercion.
A military statement Monday quoted Munir reiterating that the recent attacks on defense installations and memorials were "intolerable."
Khan addressed his supporters via a Twitter Space session Monday and likened the "oppression of his party workers" to the genocide in Nazi Germany. He defended his supporters for staging peaceful protests outside military installations, saying, "It is our constitutional right."
The Sharif government has barred local television channels from airing statements and speeches by the opposition leader.
The PTI said more than 220,000 people tuned in for Monday’s Twitter Space with Khan. In a veiled reference to the military, Khan said that the "masterminds" behind the effort to crush his party have no understanding of politics, history or human behavior.
"People are not stupid; you cannot stop the truth from coming forward in the times of social media. Will you put millions of people in jail? Are people not seeing what is happening?" he asked.
Khan said he was going to Islamabad to appear before an anti-graft court to secure bail on Tuesday and there was a chance he would be arrested again. He urged his supporters to remain peaceful in such an eventuality and not allow authorities to crack down on them again.
"We are seeing an intensifying campaign to sideline, if not altogether eliminate, what is likely Pakistan's most popular political party," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.
"This means that this extensive crackdown playing out across Pakistani politics isn't just an assault on Imran Khan and his party — it's an assault on democracy itself," Kugelman said.
Political rivals accused Khan of becoming prime minister in 2018 with the support of the military and losing power after falling out with the generals. The army denies the charges.
A parliamentary vote of no confidence toppled Khan's coalition government in April 2022. He rejected the vote as illegal and said it was orchestrated by the military in collaboration with Sharif and the United States.
The cricket star-turned-politician has held massive public rallies to call for early elections since his removal from power. While leading a protest last November, Khan was wounded in the leg by gunshots and accused Sharif, along with a senior general of the military spy agency, of masterminding an assassination attempt. The government and army officials rejected the charges.
Khan has faced many legal challenges, ranging from accusations of corruption and sedition to inciting terrorism, since his removal from office. He denies all allegations and blames the military for being behind his legal troubles to get him disqualified for office and block his return to power.
Adam Weinstein at Washington's Quincy Institute cautioned against completely sidelining PTI, saying it would "disenfranchise" many Pakistanis.
"Khan's critics claim he gained power with military support. Regardless of how he came to power, he remains highly popular, especially among young people and urbanites," Weinstein said.
The army has long remained "untouchable." Critics say Khan and his supporters, however, have significantly undermined the hegemony of the security institution, prompting it to reassert its standing.
The military has staged three coups and ruled Pakistan for more than three decades. The PTI-led criticism of the institution has lately emboldened politicians from other parties to publicly acknowledge that civilian governments need the support of generals to survive in power.
"Pakistan's political and business elites have an elite bargain with the security establishment. The party or coalition in power benefits from this bargain, while the opposition is left out," Weinstein said.
"Politicians who criticize the military while in the opposition often support it when they are in power. Preserving their party's position is more important than challenging the status quo."
