FORMER Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan appeared in a special court at the capital’s police headquarters Wednesday to answer graft charges, local media reported, a day after his arrest prompted violent nationwide protests.
Some local media, citing unnamed sources, said prosecutors had asked for Khan to be remanded in custody for 14 days.
Geo TV said Khan was allowed to consult with his lawyers during the hearing, but court officials were not available to confirm details of the proceedings, held behind closed doors.
Khan’s detention Tuesday follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.
Pakistan politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country’s founding in 1947, but few have so directly challenged a military that has staged at least three coups and had ruled for more than three decades.
Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, torching the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege at the entrance to the army’s general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
“At a time we are already struggling to feed our children, further uncertainty has been created,” Farooq Bhatti, a van driver, told AFP in Rawalpindi Wednesday morning.
“The violence will not serve anyone… everyone will be affected… but I doubt the decision makers care.”
Authorities also ordered schools closed across the country and continued restricting access to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Police fought pitched battles with supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in cities across the country for hours on Tuesday night.
Local media reported two deaths in those clashes, while police said 945 “lawbreakers and miscreants” had been arrested in Punjab alone, the country’s most populous province.
Protesters blocked some routes leading to Islamabad around lunchtime Wednesday but there was a huge security presence across the capital, particularly outside the so-called police lines where the special court convened.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice chairman of the PTI, urged supporters to keep protesting in a “lawful and peaceful manner”, adding party lawyers would file appeals and petitions against Khan’s arrest.
