That Imran Khan had cases registered against him was made inevitable when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced its verdict in the prohibited funding case last month. The ECP had not ordered the registration of a case against either PTI members in the judgement, but the verdict contained findings that indicated criminal activity by Mr Khan and others. The case registered centres on the donations made by Arif Naqvi of the Abraaj Group. Mr Khan and others are accused of having filed false affidavits to the ECP in connection with these donations.
The registration of the case came after the Federal Investigation Agency examined the verdict, as well as asked various stalwarts of the PTI, including Mr Khan himself, to explain their position. It is not as if Mr Khan and his party colleagues supinely waited for the FIA to act. Mr Khan first vignored the FIA’s summons, and only joined the investigation after a court battle. Though he was given bail till Octobr 20, this may be the case in which he is actually arrested. The government may only be using this arrest, or its threat, as a pawn in the chess-game it is playing over the PTI’s expected Long March, for which Mr Khan is expected to give the date, but has not so far. Meanwhile, other PTI luminaries have obtained bail in Lahore, after having been nominated in the FIR. The case, opened up by the ECP verdict, has been tuly inter-provincial, as the PIA has spread its enquiries to PTI office bearers in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
While the PTI Long March may be an additional issue, the registration of this case is merely an addition to the various legal battles he faces. The prohibited funding case has not completely played out before the ECP, and it is also seized with the Toshakhana reference. Then there are audio leaks. They too may well result in proceedings against him. There are allegations of depredations wrought in Punjab which are on hold now that the government has passed into the hands of Ch Pervez Elahi.
While Mr Khan may be innocent of all wrongdoing in all of these cases, only the most bullheaded of PTI supporters would not concede that these charges do not deserve a probe, and a thorough one at that. However, that thorough probe must not be allowed to degenerate into a witch-hunt, as has too often been the case.
