A strike in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over unfulfilled demands turned violent, resulting in one death and multiple injuries. Mobile and internet services have been suspended in the region.
These are obviously not 'organic' desertions but brought about under intense military pressure, post the 9/5 arrests. It seemed as if the party was being dismantled the same way it was brought into power!, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
A Pakistani court sentenced jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 14 and 7 years in prison respectively after finding them guilty of corruption in the 190 million pounds al-Qadir Trust case. The verdict was announced in a makeshift court set up in Adila jail where Khan is currently lodged. Khan has been convicted for "corrupt practices" and "misuse of authority", while his wife has been convicted for "involvement in illegal activities". The court also ordered the confiscation of the land of Al-Qadir University set up by them. Supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party staged a protest outside Parliament House, demanding his release. Khan claims all cases against him were politically motivated.
Jailed former premier Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has distanced itself from a party leader's invitation to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to join its protest, asserting that no foreign country has a role in its political struggle.
'Under the circumstances, this announcement may remain limited to bravado and little else, adding momentum to Imran's narrative of victimhood,' points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
On Sunday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) formed the committee to probe the explosive allegations levelled by former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha that widespread rigging aided by the judiciary and the top election body took place against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
'Five months after the elections in February 2024, the Pakistan army has not been able to break Imran Khan's resolve and break his political party.'
Pakistan's election commission has formed a high-level committee to probe the explosive allegations levelled by a senior bureaucrat that widespread rigging aided by the judiciary and the top election body happened against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The ministry said that the media and the public's concerns about the late processing of the results have been reviewed.
Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were on Tuesday sentenced to 10 years each in prison for leaking State secrets.
President Alvi recalled the fight for the EVMs waged by the previous PTI-led government, saying that the entire endeavour -- which involved more than 50 meetings at the presidency alone -- was abandoned.
The announcement of results was delayed beyond normal, giving air to speculation about vote rigging.
Asif Ali Zardari was overwhelmingly elected as the 14th President of Pakistan on Saturday, becoming the only civilian President of the coup-prone country for a second time.
This is 71-year-old Khan's fourth conviction since 2022 adding to the troubles of the beleaguered founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party ahead of the February 8 polls.
A large number of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf candidates had contested as independents after the ECP had snatched the former prime minister Imran Khan-led party of its iconic cricket bat symbol.
The PML-N, however, rejected the demand and claimed that it was winning Thursday's elections.
The lawmakers expressed concerns about "pre- and post-poll rigging in Pakistan's recent parliamentary elections" and urged the US Congress to "withhold recognition of a new government in Pakistan until a thorough, transparent, and credible investigation of election interference has been conducted".
Among the political parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest party, winning 227 seats, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 160 seats.
The courts in Pakistan have been flooded with petitions as candidates, mostly backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), challenged the results of Thursday's general elections, alleging rigging.
'During my tenure as PM, two Indian prime ministers visited Pakistan. Modi sahab and Vajpayee sahab had come to Lahore'
Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Monday, became the first-ever woman chief minister of a province in Pakistan when she was elected to head the Punjab province, describing it as an 'honour' for every woman in the country.
In a surprise development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Tuesday nominated its president Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate of Pakistan instead of the party supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif.
The Pakistani actor's tweet came after violence that broke out in many cities of the neighbouring country following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan for alleged corruption.
Pakistan celebrated its 77th Independence Day on Monday.
According to police, over 500 miscreants from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reached the Model Town Lahore residence of the prime minister in the early hours of Wednesday and set ablaze vehicles parked over there.
The first on the list is Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali politician from then East Pakistan who served as the fifth prime minister. He was arrested in January 1962 and put in jail on bogus charges of "anti-state activities". His actual crime was his refusal to support military ruler General Ayub Khan.
Former prime minister Imran Khan got a major relief on Tuesday when an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan granted him bail till June 8 in eight cases related to violence that erupted at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad in March.
The judges reserved the verdict on Monday after the rival lawyers concluded their arguments on the suspension of the three-year sentence handed down to the 70-year-old PTI chairman by Additional District and Session Judge, Islamabad, Humayun Dilawar on August 5.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former foreign minister and vice-chairman of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was arrested again on Tuesday, moments after being released from a prison in Rawalpindi on the orders of a top court.
Khan, 70, was arrested from his home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of 'corrupt practices' in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.
ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas heard the PTI party chief's pleas seeking bail in cases about the March 18 violence outside the federal judicial complex in Islamabad and approved Khan's bail against bonds worth PKR 50,000 in all seven cases, the Dawn newspaper reported.
In a temporary relief for Imran Khan, a Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the police to stop till Thursday its operation outside the former prime minister's residence in Lahore to arrest him in a corruption case after a scuffle between the security personnel and his supporters.
Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan, who was arrested by paramilitary Rangers on Tuesday, is facing 121 cases across the country, including for committing treason and blasphemy and inciting violence and terrorism.
Khan was convicted in the Toshakhana case which was filed last year on the complaint of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which had earlier disqualified him in the same case.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday said that former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested for causing loss to the national treasury in a corruption case.
The court issued its reserved ruling, upsetting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which claimed the arrest was illegal and that the IHC would rule in favour of party chief Imran Khan.
A Pakistani judge on Saturday cancelled former premier Imran Khan's arrest warrants in the Toshakhana corruption case and allowed him to go home without indicting him, amidst clashes between his supporters and police outside the court complex in Islamabad.
Pakistan is bracing for another day of violence that broke out in many cities after the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan for alleged corruption with the leaders of his party announcing a countrywide strike on Wednesday to protest against the fascist government.
In a major relief for Imran Khan, Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday declared the former prime minister's arrest "illegal" and ordered his immediate release after he was produced before a bench on its orders.
A video shared by Qureshi's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Twitter shows plain-clothed men taking him away, with him waving at party workers before departing from the location where he was detained.