Pakistan government supporters call for judge to resign after Khan release

Court grants bail to politician's wife Bushra Bibi until end of May

Pro-government demonstrators gather in front of the Supreme Court to protest against the granting of bail to Imran Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan. Reuters

Thousands of pro-government protesters in Pakistan demanded the resignation of a top judge on Monday for releasing former prime minister Imran Khan on bail last week.

Mr Khan was arrested on corruption charges last Tuesday and released on Thursday for two weeks after his arrest was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court's chief justice.

In recent days, his supporters have taken to streets across the country to protest against his arrest following months of simmering political tension.

“The chief justice and a few of his cronies are disgracing the judiciary like never before. Their justice seems to be serving one leader only,” said Malik Hassam Mehmood, a 36-year-old trader and supporter of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's party.

“We are here to protest for the rule of law and a non-partisan judiciary.”

Protesters gathered outside the court on Monday in the capital's so-called red zone, surrounded by a heavy security presence.

The Supreme Court order said Mr Khan's arrest last week, which took place after he had arrived at the Islamabad High Court to file a bail application in the graft case, “violated the petitioner's right of access to justice”.

However, referring to the pro-government protesters, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Sunday that “people want to come in very large numbers because of a deep sense of anger and anguish”.

Analysts say legal hurdles are often used to discourage dissent in Pakistan. Mr Khan has dismissed the cases arrayed against him as politically motivated.

Political analyst Mosharraf Zaidi said judges were split down the middle over the political crisis.

“The judiciary still makes compromises with both civilians and the military, but on many issues judges have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to take a stand and hold their ground,” he told AFP.

Mr Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, has been granted bail until May 23, a court in the eastern city of Lahore said on Monday.

She was accused along with her husband of receiving financial help from a land developer in the setting-up of Al Qadir University, of which the former prime minister and his spouse are trustees.

“We had requested for a protective bail for Bushra Bibi in Al Qadir Trust Case and a two-judge bench of LHC has granted the bail till May 23,” Ms Bibi's lawyer, Intizar Hussain Panjutha, told Reuters.

Mr Khan, who accompanied his wife to the Lahore High Court, had earlier on Monday expressed fears that the government was planning to arrest his wife as part of what he says is a campaign against him.

“The plan is now to humiliate me by putting Bushra Begum in jail,” he said in a post on Twitter, using a Muslim honorific title common in South Asia.

The government denies being behind the case and says the anti-graft agency, the National Accountability Bureau, is working independently.

The case is one of more than 100 registered against the embattled Mr Khan since he was ousted from power in April 2022 in a parliamentary vote, having served less than four years in office.

He has since campaigned across the country for fresh elections and blames the military for cracking down on him and his party — a charge the military denies.

Mr Khan was shot and wounded in an attack while campaigning last year.