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Rawalpindi on high alert after Imran Khan’s protest call: What’s happening in Pakistan
More than 1,300 police officers and security personnel were deployed to maintain law and order amid concerns over protests by workers of Imran Khan’s party.
Heavy security was deployed across Rawalpindi on Saturday as authorities braced for possible protests after jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan called on his supporters to take to the streets following his reported conviction in the Toshakhana 2 corruption case.
Officials said that more than 1,300 police officers and security personnel were placed on duty to maintain law and order amid concerns over demonstrations by workers of Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, news agency PTI reported.
The deployment included two superintendents of police, seven deputy superintendents of police, 29 inspectors and station house officers, 92 upper subordinates and 340 constables, a report in The Express Tribune said. Seven sections of Elite Force commandos, 22 Rapid Emergency and Security Operations personnel, and 400 members of the Anti-Riots Management Wing were also mobilised.
Apart from Imran Khan's PTI, the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami also announced protests across Punjab on Sunday against what it termed the “Black Local Government Act 2025,” prompting additional police deployment.
Khan’s call for protests from jail
The 73-year-old former PM and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced on Saturday to 17 years’ imprisonment each in the Toshakhana 2 case, PTI reported. The verdict was announced by a special court inside Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail, where Khan has been lodged since August 2023.
Soon after the court's order, Khan released a statement on his X account early Sunday, the PTI founder said he had urged party leaders to prepare for a protest movement after what he described as a “military-style trial decision.”
It was not immediately known who posted the message, as Khan does not have direct access to his social media accounts in jail. The post also did not specify when the protests would be launched.
“I have sent a message to (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister) Sohail Afridi to prepare for the street movement. The entire nation will have to rise for its rights,” Khan's post added.
What is Toshakhana 2 case
The Toshakhana 2 case relates to alleged fraud involving state gifts received by the former prime minister and his wife from the Saudi government in 2021, PTI reported.
Notably, Toshakhana is a department under Pakistan’s cabinet division that stores gifts presented to rulers and government officials by foreign dignitaries. Such gifts can be bought back under prescribed rules and procedures.
The case, filed in July 2024, was based on allegations that valuable items — including expensive watches and diamond and gold jewellery sets — were sold by the husband and wife duo without being deposited first, the report added.
Bushra Bibi was granted bail by the Islamabad high court in October 2024, and Khan was granted bail in the same case a month later. Both were indicted in December last year. However, proceedings continued at Adiala Jail, where they were already incarcerated following convictions earlier this year in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
In its judgment, the accountability court sentenced Khan and Bushra Bibi to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Pakistan Penal Code and seven years under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 16.4 million on each of them, PTI news agency's reported.
Reacting to the judgement, Khan alleged that he and his wife were being “continuously subjected to mental torture by keeping us in solitary confinement.” “There is a ban on our books, TV, and meetings. Every prisoner in jail can watch TV, but even watching TV has been banned for me and Bibi Bushra,” he claimed.
‘No embargo’ on Khan’s sons meeting him
Meanwhile, the Pakistan government said on Saturday that there was “no embargo” on Khan’s sons meeting their father if they travelled to the country. Interior state minister Talal Chaudhry said, “There has been no embargo on Suleman Khan and Kasim Khan to meet their father, Imran Khan, at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.”
Suleman and Kasim Khan, who live in London, are Khan’s sons from his first marriage with British TV personality Jemima Goldsmith.
Party leaders and family members have earlier raised concerns about restrictions on meetings with the former prime minister, saying such limits were imposed on the grounds that visitors used meetings for political purposes.
(With PTI inputs)
