Pakistan police arrest several lawmakers in jailed Imran Khan's party

By Asif Shahzad and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistani police arrested several lawmakers and leaders of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan's party in midnight raids a day after it held a rally in the capital to demand his release, the party and police said on Tuesday.

The former cricket star, 71, has been in jail for over a year since his overthrow in 2022 after a falling-out with powerful military generals which has spawned the worst political turmoil in decades in the nation of 241 million people.

A police spokesman confirmed the detention of four individuals but gave no details of charges. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said nearly a dozen of its parliamentarians had been picked up in Islamabad. Others had sought refuge in parliament to evade police, it said.

Its lawmakers protested in a session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, calling for action against what they alleged was the illegal entry of law enforcement personnel into the premises of parliament.

"Plainclothes people entered the parliament and arrested people's representatives - this is an assault on Pakistan's democracy," PTI legislator Ali Muhammad said.

National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq announced that he would investigate the complaints, which, if verified, could result in legal action. He ordered all detained lawmakers to be returned to parliament.

Media footage showed police pushing the lawmakers into vehicles outside parliament, a scene that Omar Ayub Khan, the party's leader of the opposition, called "despicable".

"Yesterday's massive protest has sent shivers down the government's spine," Khan's aide, Zulfikar Bukhari, said in a post on X, calling the detentions illegal.

Party chairman Gohar Khan was among those held, added Bukhari, who is also a party spokesman. The chairman was, however, later released by police.

COUNTRYWIDE PROTESTS

PTI leaders, in a press conference in the northwestern city of Peshawar, announced countrywide protests for Friday against the new crackdown.

"Fresh elections are the only way out of the current situation," PTI's leader of the opposition in parliament told journalists.

Candidates backed by the PTI won the most seats in a general election in February but fell short of the majority required to form a government. Khan's rivals cobbled together a coalition instead to set up a bloc under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

PTI says the elections were manipulated to keep Khan out of power - a charge the Pakistan Election Commission denies.

Monday night's crackdown came a day after the PTI rally held on Islamabad's outskirts to demand Khan's release was marred by clashes between supporters and police that injured a senior police official.

The PTI said the violence began after police fired teargas at a peaceful gathering in a bid to disperse it.

Some party leaders, such as Ali Amin Gandapur, chief minister of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, criticised the ruling alliance and the military in speeches at the rally.

"Put your house in order," he advised the military, warning against any attempt at a military trial for Khan. "I am not scared of the army uniform."

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Gandapur had threatened to free Khan from jail by force and incited his supporters to engage in violence.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Gibran Peshimam in Karachi; editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)