“I’ll be more dangerous if ousted from power," warned Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, months before he was removed from office through a vote of no confidence in April 2022. He became the first prime minister to be removed like this.
A little more than a year later, Khan’s words came true, and he proved how dangerous he was— he had already been giving the Shahbaz government sleepless nights.
Political workers loyal to Khan went on a rampage following his arrest on 9 May 2023, from the premises of the Islamabad High Court on corruption charges in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust scandal. Two days later, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered Khan to be released immediately as the arrest was ‘unlawful’.
During the two days that Khan was in custody, following their leader’s instructions left in a video message he made hours before his arrest, supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) blocked roads in several major cities. They clashed with the police, leaving injured on both sides. They torched government buildings, public property, and vehicles and looted shops. Reportedly, a thousand arrests were made, including top leaders of the party.
The only brother of three sisters, it won’t be wrong to say that Imran Khan has had a charmed life and has always had others to look out for him. He can’t help it if he has been the centre of attention. He was an eligible bachelor when he was young and now he is the most eligible political leader in Pakistan. He holds his followers in a hypnotic trance who lap up every word of their leader without question. There is no doubt that he is one of the most popular leaders in Pakistan currently.