Staff Reporter:
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan who faces corruption charges told DW on Thursday there is an “unprecedented crackdown taking place” in Pakistan.
Speaking with DW’s Anja Kueppers-McKinnon Khan said he “expect to be re-arrested.”
Pakistani police surrounded Khan’s house in Lahore on Wednesday.
“My entire senior leadership is in jail, they get bail from court as they come out of court, they again get re-arrested,” he said.
Khan said, he it was done “in order to crush the party so that we don’t contest the election, this is why all of this is happening.”
He said, “7,500 workers have been arrested, we don’t know what is going one, all my leadership has been arrested.”
Khan will ignore a summons by the country’s anti-graft agency to appear before it on Thursday for questioning his party spokesman said.
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It comes after his arrest last week on graft charges. The detention sparked violent clashes across the country in which at least 10 people were killed. He was released on Friday after being granted protection from arrest in multiple legal cases against him.
Punjab’s information minister Amir Mir said there were no plans to rearrest Khan. “All we want him to hand over the terrorists hiding at his home,” he said.
Mir said intelligence and law enforcement agencies had identified that up to 40 people accused of attacking military installations during last week’s unrest were hiding at Khan’s home.
“It is absolute nonsense,” Khan said.
